When good things happen in their due time even under seemingly bleak situations
ICordillerawas so happy when a vehicle was assigned to my unit, after so many years since the Administrative Region came into existence.
It happened during the term of Dr. Lorenzo Mamuag Caranguian. He was assigned to the DA-CAR from Region 02 on October 15, 2015, after the demise of our former Regional Executive Director in the person of Ms. Marilyn V. Sta. Catalina.
Atty. Cipriano Santiago, soon served as OICRegional Executive Director of the DA-CAR, for about 3 months, when he was called back to his previous post as Regional Executive Director of Region 4-B.
A vehicle is critical to our operations. Only the head of an office, whose intentions and drive to serve the Cordillera farmers understand that. If you fight poverty and related development needs in marginalized mountain communities, with a battle cry that seeks so many (pinakamarami, pinakamaganda, pinakamabuluhan, pinakamabilis) good things to happen in a most appropriate, meaningful and timely manner, you would also need a credible information and communication unit that can document what is happening on the ground and share these for information, monitoring, validation, and feedback with and from the beneficiaries themselves, the agency’s public, its investors, and development partners.
Director Caranguian was happy to see me get off the vehicle, during an official trip into the region’s interior, a white Pajero that is 20 years old more or less. The vehicle has been passed on from one unit to another.
While we were both happy about the vehicle, there was something that bothered him. I soon learned about it when we were going through the discussions and preparations for the visit of Secretary Emmanuel Piñol in Kalinga, earlier this year. First, he asked me to take note of our unit assignments. He also noticed why I was alone. I should have brought somebody with me to help document the proceedings. Then he concluded his remarks with a question: “What is the point of having a vehicle when it is not maximized?”
Not a few staff have confronted me, asking what have I fed RED Enzo, to deserve his favors (Anya man ti inpakan mo ken RED ta paborito dakayo?). It is an insult, of course, even if they do it jokingly. The truth is, I struggled with Dr. Caranguian since his assignment here. He is a difficult person, driven by his aspirations to respond to the development expectations of the Cordillera region.
During that meeting, I know RED Enzo will keep on hammering on my lapses unless I can fully explain myself. I told him, “all and each of my staff was either with the different components documenting the region’s Gawad Saka entries, if not assigned to cover the other activities of the agency” I then complained that the vehicle assigned to us has body, mechanical and electrical problems: “I cannot risk others riding with me in it.”
A year before this encounter, he almost got into my collar, when we were in Banaue, Ifugao also preparing the staging of the Secretary’s “Byaheng Bukid Program” for the province middle of last year. He asked me then to prepare the design and set-up of the hall and how the events would unfold. But being a hands-on manager he did not approve of most of what I already set-up. We found ourselves clashing on the spot. This was a difficult encounter but the good thing about him was that he continued to keep me working until the work was done.
Let it be known that Director Caranguian did not only desire to do so much to increase investment for agricultural development in CAR with his development battle cry but to also ease the difficulties we face in implementing our work.
During his term, he made sure all procurement for new equipment, were equitably distributed to all units. He also made sure that the smaller units of the office will not need to beg for their operational budget from the bigger units and programs, through a regular review of the Office budget obligations and liquidation. This has been a primary agenda during our weekly management meetings in the office. It corrected returning huge amounts of the unspent budget every quarter to the National Treasury.
In due time, the Agency procured new vehicles for use of the staff. Soon the utility of the new vehicles was discussed in a management meeting. As usual, this was a struggle. Every unit head would like to have the benefit of a new vehicle assigned to his or her care. I knew there was no chance for us to have one of those cars, except of course, if Director Caranguian thinks otherwise.
When the deliberations were over and the new vehicles were finally assigned to the different units, he asked each one for contrary opinions. When it was my turn to speak, he had a ready answer that served us well. I told him and everybody, “Sir, twice in a row, we almost left the Pajero at the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway due to mechanical defect.” That is when he asked that a better vehicle, one that has been previously assigned to another unit, be transferred to us. I was glad.
Finally, I woke up one-day last year, realizing that I was never promoted in the service for more than 20 years even if I have faithfully served my agency and received several distinguished awards from national and regional award-giving bodies in the performance of my work. I am the only person in the DA-CAR who had that distinction. Of course, my peers in the Agency deserved their promotions having completed their masters and doctoral degrees while working in the office. In my last years, I was resigned to retiring with my present position in the Agency.
Today, after congratulating him on his new assignment as regional executive director of region 02 (OIC), RED Enzo also announced on my FB post that I was promoted to a Supervising Agriculturist position. I was overwhelmed but such things happen in good times, and you can only be but grateful to God. You can ride in His chariot to better times, this side of heaven too, even if things appear seemingly bleak. -30to