THE MORAL PURPOSE OF POLITICS

just entitlements and political rights.

It must be stressed that democratic procedures alone do not guarantee the creation of a just or well-ordered society. Reflecting on Sen’s Development as Freedom, I believe that there is an important distinction between procedural and substantive democracy. If democracy is meant to serve the moral ends of society, then it must benefit ordinary people. Human development begins with the kind of choices people make, and these choices are a concrete manifestation of the substantive freedoms people have and enjoy. Democratic institutions need to be repaired and strengthened, but this requires more than the improvement of constitutional provisions. The value of true democracy depends on how people value their dignity as human beings.

Grassroots democracy is about empowering the poor and the marginalized. If societies need to be transformed, then power will have to be redirected from the center towards the margins or the peripheries. If power is the true essence of the political apparatus, then it is important that such power is not to fall on the lap of one sector or party, which in most cases, the oligarchy that controls the economy and decision makers in government. Human development is only possible if people have a say in the lives in which they live. Beyond the advocacies for growth and change, people should become actual contributors and stakeholders in laws and public policy by fully exercising their rights, just entitlements, and democratic duties. Institutions play a crucial role, but any institution, the bureaucracy in particular, can be subject to bad decision making and wrong policy directions when government officials and political leaders have self-serving motives. Realizing the vision of human development is only possible under a mature and functioning democracy. A true democracy requires, as matter of principle, the basic respect for the dignity of the human person, anchored in the strong belief that a life lived in dignity is a human life lived fully and well, which means decent housing, food on the table, health care and education, and secure jobs. Hence, the basic structure of government owes to each and every one of us that it works for the whole person and for all persons. What this means ultimately is that democratic institutions should embody the rule of law and that opportunities should be available to every citizen. In a country ruled by political elites, this is very difficult. Given this situation, it is crucial to repair the country’s many institutional weaknesses.

It is the task of social and political institutions to deliver the poor out of their difficult lives. Government institutions, however, are limited by bureaucratic procedures. The implementation of rules and government programs are affected by the vested interests of those who are in power. In the ideal sense, the above implies that “justice as fairness” requires that no person should be used as a mere means to an end for the good of those who are in the high places of society. No individual should be disadvantaged by the social and political apparatus. It is a requirement of justice that each person is given his or her due as a human being. This is the fundamental role of justice, says the political thinker, John Rawls. Justice means serving the disadvantaged, whose misfortune in the natural lottery is not their fault. Recognizing this is the moral purpose of politics.

HARVESTING CACAO ALL-YEAR ROUND

Breathes there a man with a soul so dead who has never tried chocolate. Most ladies and little children love eating chocolate, a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels.

I like chocolates but don’t love it to the extent that I cannot live without having chocolate in a day. If there’s chocolate, fine; if there’s none, it’s fine also. But my nieces love chocolates; so much so that even ice cream and donuts must be flavored with chocolates.

If I go to the United States, one of the pasalubongs my nieces and sisters request is – yes, you’re right – chocolates. After all, there are so many chocolates, lots of them, available in the land of milk and honey.

What most people don’t know, even those chocolate aficionados, is that for most of its 3,500-year history, it was not meant to be eaten but rather consumed as a beverage. When I was still a kid, I loved drinking hot chocolate which my mother prepared from tableya.

Chocolates come from cacao trees. The Chiapas and the Yucatan regions of Central America were the first peoples who cultivated the cacao and made use of its product by grinding the beans and then mixing with water.

Around A.D. 200, the Olmec civilizations were overthrown by the Mayan civilization. The vast cacao plantations were used as a source of currency, with the little black beans being traded for goods or services. Can you imagine working for eight hours and at the end of the day, you are paid by cacao beans?

In those days, if you were poor, you couldn’t drink it. Only those belong to the ruling class can consume it. It was at this time that the process of making cacao drink became more sophisticated – the beans were roasted and then ground with water before spices such as chili were added. The resulting mixture was shaken until it developed a frothy top, at which point it was ready to be enjoyed.

Famed Emperor Montezuma (who inspired Filipino comics novelist Jim Fernandez to create his equally famous character, Zuma) enjoyed the drink so much that he reputedly downs 50 goblets full every day.

It wasn’t until in 1847 that chocolate bars came into existence. Thanks to Joseph Fry, a British manufacturer who mixed melted cacao butter into a paste that was then pressed into a mold and sold as a solid bar.

Milton Snavely Hershey entered the chocolate business in 1893. And that was how milk chocolate Hershey bar and Hershey’s Kisses were born. During World War II, chocolate bars became a standard issue item for the U.S. military.

“In 1670, Spanish mariner Pedro Bravo de Lagunas planted the first cacao in San Jose, Batangas,” reports The Philippines Recommends for Cacao. After that, cacao growing flourished in various parts of the country.

Since cacao is considered an equatorial crop (crops that thrive well on regions occupying the equator), the Philippines has a great potential for growing cacao. “I really could not believe why we cannot import cacao beans when the Philippines is ideal for growing cacao,” Jethro P. Adang, director of Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC).

Although cacao can be grown anywhere in the country, Mindanao has two advantages: good rainfall and good soil. Studies have shown that the potential expansion for cacao growing is huge: about 2,000,000 hectares of coconut lands are “highly suited” to be interplanted with cacao.

Now, there’s new cacao farm- ing technique that can turn an allyear round harvest. “How can you expect a tree to yield a large volume of cacao pods if the bud wood used in grafting for the seedling to be planted doesn’t yield cacao pods?”

Jack Sandique, a cacao farming expert of Cacao PhilSense who asked the question, said that this is the problem most farmers are not aware of since grafted seedlings are either given to them for free or if they bought it, they don’t know where they were sourced.

Cacao PhilSense is a group of cacao experts in cacao farming, post-harvest and cacao bean processing. They are advocates of these new methodology and techniques in cacao farming and post-harvest processes.

In traditional farming, a farmer is given grafted cacao seedlings to be planted. Most of them do not even know where the seedlings came from, and sometimes they do not know which cacao variety they’re planting. The farmer is often promised that after two to three years, the cacao trees will start to bear fruit and their hard work will pay off once they can sell the dried beans or process the cacao beans further as tableya.

However, after two to three years, some farms have cacao trees that barely produce flowers with some trees being stunted. With this, farmers will spend another year or two and end up having to spend more money.

Just recently, Sandique conducted a training for participants and stakeholders of the Department of Science and Technology Region VII (DOST-VII) - Bohol Provincial Office.

Cacao PhilSense’ new way of cacao farming, grooms the cacao trees, making the cacao pod harvesting to be done all year round, with no more peak or lean season.

Part of this new technique is carefully selecting the planting materials to be considered for grafting. The bud wood must come from a productive tree that produces high yield of cacao pods.

The planting bags used for growing seedlings in the nursery are much bigger compared to the traditional ones being used. This allows the roots to grow even during the nursery stage in preparation for planting.

Using this method of seedling preparation paired with proper land area preparation would result in the planted cacao seedling to start bearing fruits after one and a half years.