Belgian envoy visits Basilan agrarian projects
text & photos HADER GLANG

Belgian Ambassador to the Philippines Gregoire Vardakis cuts the bark of a rubber tree to let out sap during a plantation tour at Lamitan Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative (LARBECO) in Basilan.

Belgian Ambassador to the Philippines Gregoire Vardakis made a one-day field visit to the Province of Basilan in the southern Philippines on Thursday to inspect a multi million grant projects by the royal government of Belgium.

Vardakis expressed his confidence about the present situation in Basilan, saying that there is stabilization in the province, “this means that this country (Philippines) is going in the right direction as far as the whole peace process is concerned.”

“We (the Belgian) as member state of the European Union (EU), we touch great importance to this peace process…and this is the reason why in January of this year, the European ambassadors visited Mindanao.”

Mayor Roderick Furigay and Army 103rd Brigade Commander Brig. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer led in welcoming Ambassador Vardakis, accompanied by his programme coordinator, Peter D’Huys.

They inaugurated one unit semi-public latrine and toured at a 500-hectare LARBECO rubber plantation. They also inaugurated two newly completed school classrooms at Baungos Elementary and a school classroom-building project in Menzi, Isabela City.

DAR regional director Julita Ragandang said the Belgian Integrated Agrarian Reform Support Programme have already spent over P30 million to support several initiative projects and agrarian reform programs of the different cooperatives in the province.

Ragandang said the interventions of the Belgian government and other DAR foreign assisted projects have helped a lot the province in providing jobs, livelihood and improving the lives of the cooperative beneficiaries.

The support of the Belgian government to the Philippines’ Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP) started in 1995 with the Belgian Agrarian Reform Support Project (BARSP) and was extended in 1998 with the Belgian Integrated Agrarian Reform Support Programme (BIARSP).

The prime objective of BIARSP is to reduce poverty by increasing the income of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs). The programme does not only concentrate its interventions on agricultural infrastructure, but also incorporates health and basic education components.

BIARSP targets Region VII (Provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor and Negros Oriental), Region IX (Provinces of Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay) and Basilan in the ARMM, and reaches 54 municipalities in these 8 provinces.

The field visit to Basilan by Vardakis was the first for a high-ranking Belgian official since the 1998 kidnapping of two Belgian nationals, agrarian expert Lieven de la Marche and journalist Erick Bracke. It was organized by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

“It was very successful. We had the opportunity to visit our projects in Basilan, they have been going on there for several years and thanks to the Philippine authorities, especially to Secretary Dureza,” Vardakis said in an interview at Edwin Andrews Air Base in Zamboanga City.

When asked his comment on the Belgium’s interest in the peace process between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), he said, “We are open to dialogue with the government and whatever we can contribute.”

“I can’t say more for the moment I would just say that we are already contributing but if there is any special request from the local authorities we will certainly study it and analyze the situation and see what we can do collectively.

Vardakis said he is hopeful that the peace process between the Philippine government and the MILF would be concluded by the end of the year.

"That would be a new development which would certainly be considered as a new level of confidence building. It is our wish that the sooner the better, but of course this is in the hands of the facilitators and all friendly forces who are keeping hand in this very delicate negotiations. We can not speak on behalf of those actors we are just observers and wishing them well. That’s all I can say.” (ZS)