Jeepney Press / Isabelita Manalastas-Watanabe

Take it or Leave it!

ADVICE NI TITA LITS

My dear readers: Many questions being asked/discussed nowadays pertain to covid vaccination, and also who to support in the next Philippine presidential elections in May 2022.

Frankly, I would not like to give my opinion and advice on both topics, for the following reasons:

1. I am not an expert on the pandemic, the covid virus, or the pros and cons of being vaccinated. I am not also sure if what I read in various sources (basically the internet, and other social media forums) are fake news or accurate news;

2. It is risky to make an advice related to vaccination as I am also not an expert on the efficacy of each of the vaccines in the market, and if I should push for people to take it, and then be sued afterwards, for giving the advice that may have caused side effects to the reader. It is everyone’s own personal decision, hopefully based on science, and not hearsay or advice from lay people like myself, or possible fake news from various sources;

3. On the presidential elections, I cannot forget one incident some years ago, when President Duterte visited Japan and met with Filipinos in one hotel in Tokyo, together with a full line up of top government officials/Cabinet Ministers. He was unable to come on the appointment time, so to fill in the time, the organizer of the event showed a video on the Philippines, a good one and which I thought was educational. And then, when Vice President Leni appeared in one scene, I heard some noise from the full capacity crowd of OFWs – at first I thought they were cheering, only to realize, they were booing the Vice President of the Philippines! I thought it was very disrespectful to do that to any of our top government leaders, whoever he/she may be. I decided I could not continue to sit down and be in a crowd of kababayans who disrespect our officials. I told a friend, seated beside me, that I would like to leave. She said, “Do you want to lose your clients?”. I sat down.

I thought it is better to help, even just one OFW who approached me personally, if I could again organize another Livelihood Seminar. I then decided I will devote my advice column to something which is productive and help our OFWs if and when they decide to return home to our country, and start anew there.

I organized one Pangkabuhayan Seminar before the pandemic, at my own personal cost, as I did not want it to be a commercial event, putting the name of my company as the sponsor of the project. A retired missionary from the United Church of Christ, and now the head of SEELS Academy, assisted me fully in the successful seminar, offering his office for free, and also gave some assistance in hotel and local transportation expenses. It was a labor of love, which made the project more special.

One of the main speakers was Mr. Jose “Pepz” Cunanan, PhD. Doc Pepz is now 80 years old, but is still very active in pursuing the mission and vision of the company he set up – Golden Bahay Kubo*.

Gusto ba ninyong maglakad under a beautiful canopy of a TRELLIS OF VARIOUS VARIETY OF CLIMBERS LIKE KULABASA? Or harvest ONE METER LONG UPO?

Golden Bahay Kubo

Photo courtesy of Dr. Pepz Cunanan

Even in a small plot of land, you can plant your own vegetables, for your own consumption, without fear of ingesting chemicals that are normally sprayed in commercially grown veggies. In other words, pwede ka ng mag-organic farming kahit on a very small scale.

Kung may idle land ka naman (tulad ng nag-approach sa akin – mayroon daw ang pamilya niya sa probinsiya), then it may be worthwhile to study first before you decide what to plant. I met Doc Pepz when I was invited by to have lunch at Flor’s Garden in Antipolo, by the owner. My husband and I were the only ones who were not farmers or experts in something related to farming. There was an expert on green toilet; on the use of bamboo; propagation of native bees, which will produce not only honey, but will also help other plants/trees in your farm bear more fruit and do not sting, making compost, etc. During the discussion over lunch (harvested from the farm, and lechon cooked in a native oven invented by a Pinoy), one of the experts on growing hard wood related his family’s experience in planting hard wood without proper study, and later on, decided to destroy all those they originally planted, because the spacing of the trees was not correct, and re-planted new seedlings.

Anyway, what was very interesting to me during the talk of Doc Pepz to our OFWs during that seminar we had was to consider not only eating, or selling your vegetables as is, BUT also preserving the seeds, and consider selling the seeds to a seed bank, or doing barter, your seeds, for other farmers’ seeds. This will not only also provide earnings for the farmers, but ensure that we will have other people get the opportunity to acquire those seeds from the seedbank, and use them to diversify as they grow in their farm.

NO FILIPINO SHOULD EVER GO HUNGRY!!! The Philippines is an agriculture country. Let us put to good and scientific use our vast idle and fertile to propagate fruit trees, vegetables, climbers, herbs, flowers, etc. Sing the song Bahay Kubo, to get to know some of the many variety of vegetables we can grow.

Golden Bahay Kubo

Photo courtesy of Dr. Pepz Cunanan

*NOTE: I can put you in touch with Dr. Pepz, and provide you more photographs (power point presentation) of Golden Bahay Kubo. Please email me at: isabelita.manalastas@smtj.co.jp

All the above photos are courtesy of Dr. Pepz Cunanan, Golden Bahay Kubo.

ISABELITA MANALASTAS-WATANABE

Jeepney Press