By Pat Jared V. Pangantihon
Correspondent
AS part of her visit over the weekend here in Northern Mindanao, presidential candidate and Vice President Maria Leonor ‘Leni’ Gerona Robredo visited projects under her legacy Angat Buhay program.
Her first stop was in Barangay 1 Covered Court, Poblacion, Malaybalay City where she oversaw the establishment of community kitchens and gardens, and a supplementary feeding program for undernourished children.
It can be recalled that in 2018, the Malaybalay city government reached out to Robredo for assistance in the city’s malnutrition program, in which the Office of the Vice President (OVP) turned over P2 million.
The program served 724 undernourished children aged six to 59 months and decreased the percentage of undernourished children in targeted barangays by 88% (from 724 to 93). The OVP also distributed vegetable seeds and garden tools to the select beneficiaries and was able to establish and monitor 50 communal gardens.
Since then, the significant change in the malnutrition rate in the city created a positive impact in the city.
Some 88% of children were no longer malnourished. In education, children have more focus in class and play learning.
Charlyn Lingoyan, a direct beneficiary of the supplementary feeding program of the OVP and Malaybalay city government, shared that her son Steve was identified as malnourished before the start of the feeding but is now under the normal BMI of a two-year-old male child after the program. She was able to receive vegetable seeds that she planted in her backyard to continue feeding her family with nutritious food.
The Vice President also visited Malaybalay’s Choice Handicrafts. Tita Perla Rubio, the owner, participated in the entrepreneurship program for women where they went through training, mentoring, and product development with the partners of the Angat Buhay Program of the OVP, and this was how she discovered the potential of abaca fibers-a material used as a component in many products, including paper, handicrafts, and even food packaging.
Considered as one of the strongest natural fibers, it can also be used in weaving to accent fashion items, like clothing, bags, and hats. Tita Perla also found a way to turn woven abaca fiber into home decors, such as floor mats, placemats, and other furnishings.
She won 1st place during the Angat Buhay Women’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp’s pitching competition and received an additional capital of P30,000.
Through community-based procurement, Rubio became one of the suppliers of OVP’s Christmas tokens. With this, she was able to establish her credibility in Malaybalay as a government supplier that led to a bigger procurement partnership. During the pandemic, she took inspiration from OVP’s Alt PPE design and produced PPEs for frontliners. Rubio was able to save and construct a building that now serves as Malaybalay’s Choice Handicraft’s showroom.
The Vice President then visited the farm site of the Association of Farmers in Sitio Imbugsil, Poblacion, Sumilao, a member farmer organization of the federated Sumilao Progressive Farmers Association (SPFA), and met with the officers and members.
The farmers of SPFA have been a partner-beneficiary of OVP since 2017. They received projects from the OVP, one of which is training on Integrated Farming Bio-System (IFBS) to 244 farmers in 2017. They also received assorted garden tools, farm inputs, vegetable seeds, and 30 carabao heads through the OVP’s Locally Funded Project. The Office awarded P1.9 million to the local government unit to support the organic vegetable farmers from the 10 barangays in Sumilao.
“Dako kaayo og tabang ang office ni Vice President Leni sa mga farmers diri sa Sumilao,” said Joseph Dela Cerna, Municipal Coordinator of the Municipal Agricultural Fishery Council. “Katong iyang assistance gihatag atong 2018 sa last niya pag bisita, na kita na pud niya karon ang pag lambo sa mga gi tanom sa mga farmers,” he added.
Last year, the OVP and Pilipinas Shell Foundation tapped the Sumilao Progressive Farmers Association to provide vegetable packs for Marawi City and Cagayan de Oro respectively. They were able to earn an income of P268,750 from OVP and P92,000 from Pilipinas Shell Foundation’s Ani Para sa Bayani program.