He wanted to embark on a large-scale reforestation but unfortunately, despite Vice President Macapagal’s support, my father lost the election. And his opponent and his successors never became serious in implementing an honest-to-goodness reforestation program, as ventilated by my father.

When Cong Dadong became the President, he issued a Presidential decree that called for the organization of the “Emergency Employment Administration” (EEA). My father, who was then one of the pioneers of legal aid in Sorsogon, never sought any political position or even an appointment in the judiciary from President Macapagal. Actually he was waiting for President Macapagal to call him and offer him a position in the new Dispensation. The call never came and my father just shrugged off the obvious disregard of then Vice President Macapagal’s promise to protect him should he lose the governorship but he wins the Presidency in the next election. It was against the nature of my father and his brothers to lobby for any position in the government.

Sometime in July 1962, my father was invited by one of his Liberal Party colleagues to visit the EEA head office, where his friend was one of its high-ranking officials. My father brought me along, as I expressed a desire to work myself through college. (I hoped to land a real job at the EEA and not one fit for a political protegee.)

My father was asked how the EEA was faring in Sorsogon Province and else where in the Bicol Region. My father, who was always brutally frank about politics, said that the EEA was turning out to be a big waste of money. He said that the EEA hired thousands of casual laborers but actually they were doing nothing positive and constructive. It was a big joke in Bicolandia that the EEA casual employees would be asked to dig a ditch. And the next week another EEA boss would order them to cover it with the soil they dug the previous week, so as to maintain a semblance of activity. In fact at that time, EEA meant in the Sorsoganon dialect as “Enkod, Enkod Anay” (literally, “just sitting down and doing nothing but getting paid for it”).

My father suggested that the EEA just engage in reforestation and do it on a massive scale. He said that the public lands in the upper elevation could be planted with hardwood tree varieties. He said that the valleys and low lands, including private lands whose owners could join the project, be devoted to the growing of fruit trees. My father gave as an example the pili tree that could serve to cover the coffee and cacao trees that needed shade. My father said that before the four-year term of Cong Dadong would end, the Philippines could become one of the greenest countries on earth and many of the fruit trees would already be bearing a lot of fruits. (Most of the fruit trees, including the coffee, cacao and citrus trees, mature in three years. The pili trees would be bearing the nuts in five to six years.) The fruits would give rise to a lot of cottage-industry type of fruit canning or preservation (as dried fruits, pili-chocolate candies, etc.), as there would be an over-abundance of them. Of course, my father stressed too that wildlife would also benefit from the reforestation. And tree farmers had to maintain flocks of goats, which are nature’s way of keeping tree farms free from weeds, grasses and shrubs that feed forest fires. Raising goats would solve the country’s need for milk for its impoverished children and meat for the masses. Eventually goat raising shall pave the way for a cheese industry and tanneries and leather-craft industry from the manufacture of shoes to handbags, belts, pieces of luggage, etceteras and etc.

The EEA top brass listened with due courtesy to my father but they did not hear him. They did not bother actually to take him up seriously. Perhaps indeed many individuals – Filipinos, Americans and all people alike – could only listen to one idea at a time. My father was overloading their capability to digest ideas. (Besides my father committed the mistake of telling indirectly the EEA big shots that they did not know what they were doing.) President Macapagal’s vaunted crash program to remedy unemployment and underemployment ended when the EEA budget could not be sustained. Besides the EEA became another “White Elephant” and reeked of corruption charges. To make the long story short, the poor performance of the country’s economy was one of the major reasons President Macapagal lost his reelection bid. (Yes, it was also the case of, “It’s the economy, stupid,” as coined by then U.S. Presidential candidate Bill Clinton in 1992.) In 1965, President Macapagal was defeated soundly by then Senate President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

The friends of my father at the EEA treated him and me on that day to a sumptuous lunch but after the meal, they did not bother to invite us back to their office. I thought that they detested the frankness of my father and his suggested alternatives to the EEA wasteful way of using scarce government resources. (My father failed to mention my desire to land a job at the EEA and that was the end of my planned career as a public servant while taking up college. I never bothered to get a government job after that EEA incident.)

I never forgot either that visit to the EEA and the views of my father on reforestation and agriculture. I started to get myself acquainted with agriculture. In fact, I befriended many Bicolano students at the Araneta University Foundation (AUF), where I stayed on weekends in a boarding house with my brother Licerio, who was then taking up agriculture. In the summer of 1966, I led a team of Bicolano college students, among them about 15 AUF students, to volunteer for civic-action work in Albay Province. The summer activity was sponsored by the then Philippine Constabulary, the United States Peace Corps and some local-government agencies.

In the mid-1970s, I bought on installment several parcels of farmland in Morong, Bataan. I wanted to test my father’s concept on tree farming. But after several months, I wrote off my investment. I forgot the other lesson that my father taught me: Only big farms can compete in this highly-competitive world. I tried to introduce the concept of cooperative farms but the adjacent property owners would not buy the idea.

Up to now I keep on asking myself what would have happened if Cong Dadong’s people at the EEA listened to my father’s suggestions? What if Cong Dadong even made my father his “ideas man” at the EEA? Perhaps President Macapagal would have been reelected and the country could have avoided the declaration of martial law in 1972, for surely he (Cong Dadong) would have observed the constitutional limit of two terms. Mr. Marcos might not have been elected President in 1965 and, therefore, he would be unable to run for reelection in 1969. And best of all, the Philippine landscape would have been a lot greener. The country would have never run out of timber and wood-product exports and would become the top fruit producer in the whole of Asia. And Filipinos would have all the goat’s milk, cheese, meat and leather they needed and more for export.

Mr. Marcos wanted to do also a massive reforestation of the country. So, at the height of martial law, he issued a Presidential Decree that mandated for all able-bodied Filipino citizens who were at least 10-years old up to 60-years in age to plant a tree every year. Nobody followed the decree. Wags and pundits opined that the then President Marcos should have issued a decree prohibiting tree planting and perhaps by now the Philippines would have been the greenest country on Planet Earth. Mr. Marcos’ decree on tree planting failed because there was no economic motive to do it. The government must make tree planting an industry where tree farmers and their dependents can make money, both from the short-, medium and long-term aspects.

Now let us advance the clock to 2004 when the Philippines shall elect a new President. By coincidence of coincidences, the incumbent President is Cong Dadong’s daughter, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Like the father, the daughter is in a similar predicament. The country’s economy is not even as sound as it was when her father was the President. And when many voters are jobless and hungry, they do not seem to like to vote for the incumbent, who gets blamed for all the bad news. Yes, especially when financial scandals hound the First Family and kin.

For the past three years, whenever Sen. Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr., visited the United States, I usually had the chance to talk to him. There were a few times when there was just the two of us in the vehicle (I drive and he sits to my right as the passenger). One time, we were so engaged in a spirited discussion about Philippine events that I forgot where we were going. I missed the exit (to his daughter’s residence where he usually stays in Simi Valley) that I drove nearly all the way to the City of Lancaster.

Even when I accompanied him to Northern California in the first week of October 2003, there were quite a few instances when the other members of his party left us alone. We then talked of many things about the country. Just like all the presidential candidates, Senator Pimentel talks also of generating jobs as the primary tool of maintaining peace in the country by adhering to the strict implementation of law and order. (I might have become not only Senator Pimentel’s best listener but also his sounding board.) But unlike many of his fellow Presidentiables, I realized that Senator Pimentel is prepared to offer to the country actual and viable solutions that can be done from Day One of his presidency.

During an episode of my one-on-one brainstorming sessions with Senator Pimentel, I actually asked him if he had any viable idea about the creation of millions of jobs. He replied that he was thinking of emulating Cong Dadong and reviving the idea of the EEA. At this point, I started to relate to Senator Pimentel my recollection of the EEA and the suggestions of my father, who passed away in 1999 at age 90.

I told Senator Pimentel that before he tapped me to join his party’s senatorial slate, I was being urged by fellow Sorsoganons to run for governor of my home province. And the number-one priority in my proposed back-to-the-basics economic platform was to lead the people of Sorsogon in planting a million trees for my three-year term. I told Senator Pimentel that if Sorsogon, which is one of the smallest provinces, could be inspired to plant one-million trees in three years, then a target of 100-million trees for the Philippines in a President Pimentel’s six-year term might be a very viable target. After all the Philippines has 78 provinces, some of which are a lot bigger than Sorsogon.

Mr. Pimentel assigned to me the task of concretizing the idea on how to achieve the target of planting 100-million trees in six years. Perhaps the first year of his presidency may be devoted to finalizing feasibility studies, setting up of nurseries and support infrastructures and coming up with the funding.

From the technical side, the Philippines has produced so many forestry scientists, agronomists, horticulturists and botanists from the University of the Philippines Los Baños Campus and from private universities and agricultural schools. There is, therefore, no dearth of technical skill and trained personnel. Some of these so-called forestry scientists have organized their own companies like the Green Tropics International (GTI). I told Senator Pimentel that some Sorsoganons have introduced me to the GTI people and that they could do consultant services and the production of seedlings of trees of economic importance. Filipino technicians and agriculturists at the GTI and other similarly-situated companies can easily come up even with clonal nursery and produce the needed seedlings of forest trees and fruit or orchard trees. GTI and the other entities of forestry scientists shall be able to help the national government’s Department of Agriculture and its bureaus in doing and finalizing project feasibility studies on regional and/or provincial levels and basis.

Water for the seedlings and eventually for the growing trees shall not be a problem, as many areas in the Philippines receive more than 60 inches of rainfall per year. (Compare this with California that has an average rainfall of 13 inches per year and yet the Golden State is a net exporter of farm produce, aside from an overabundance of dairy and meat products.) What is needed for this massive reforestation project are catch basins and man-made reservoirs. And probably construct the Filipino equivalent of the California Aqueduct, which basically supplies irrigation and even drinking water from Northern California to the parched desert-like areas of Southern California.

In fact the Philippine landscape may really be changed for the better. The construction of catch basins and man-made reservoirs shall virtually make a lot of Philippine provinces look like Minnesota, the state of 10,000 lakes. People can use these new bodies of water for fishing and recreational purposes and, therefore, improve the quality of life. The Philippines does not have a lot of parks and some of the projected tree farms will be near urban centers. Yes, some of these tree farms will virtually be ecological parks, where people can visit during weekends to take picnics and enjoy life.

There is another lesson that my father taught me. He said that a thing is good only when one can have it. All of these ideas, including those ventilated in the other articles of this series of Reinventing the Philippines, will never fly unless and until funding can be secured.

How to fund what I call for want of a better term the “Emergency-Employment and Ecological-Evolution (E4)” Program? Here are the suggested ways of obtaining the needed funds:

1. Convert the so-called “Countryside Development Funds” of congressmen and senators into funding for the E4 Program. Since the E4 Program will really involve development of the countryside, what better way than to channel these billions of pesos in pork-barrel funds to the tree farms and support infrastructures? The congressmen and senators may still be given the honor of inaugurating tree farms and naming trees (or tree farms) after them.

2. Organize the farmers and the rural folks into “tree-farm cooperatives (TFC).” After all, Senator Pimentel, who authored the law on cooperatives, can exercise (especially once he becomes the President) the leadership and the moral authority in organizing on a national scale these TFCs.

   2.1 Campaign among Overseas Filipinos to join the TFCs in their home provinces or hometowns. The Overseas Filipinos may be able to provide (invest) the capital for the seedlings, labor and the purchase of tools and even the initial goat stocks. The Overseas Filipinos are the country’s middle class and, especially true of the Filipino Americans, have been described as having increasing disposable incomes.

   2.2 So as to encourage the members of the TFCs to protect and nurse the seedlings, compensation for the caretaker may be arranged for instance at the rate of $1.00 per tree for the initial three years. Those overseeing the growth of the hardwood-tree varieties may be paid a similar amount for the first 10 years (or half of the time it takes the hardwood tree to mature). This compensation scheme will pump literally hundreds of millions of pesos in the countryside commerce and trade. Increasing the purchasing power of the people in the rural areas will spell huge increases in the production of the country’s factories and manufacturing sectors and thereby create a multiplier effect.

   2.3 Since the Overseas Filipinos are estimated to be earning per annum in excess of $40 billion (spelled with a B), it is a question only of doing the right approach and a businesslike presentation of the TFC Initiative and its downstream projects. Investors, including Overseas Filipinos, know a good investment opportunity when they see one. Besides the investors shall get what I call the “emotional returns,” aside of course from the financial “return on investment “(ROI). Knowing that one’s investment has resulted in tree farms that produce oxygen for the world and that help the ecology is good for the investor’s soul.

3. Obtain grants from foreign governments and ecology-oriented international organizations. After all the trees produce oxygen, which circulate worldwide (and not only in the Philippines). The natural production of oxygen will even help cut down the so-called “warming of the planet” and may help prevent or at least delay the supposed melting of the icecaps that shall result in the inundation of low-lying areas.

   3.1 Some multinational companies based in the G-7 countries may be permitted to give grants for the Filipino TFCs in exchange for (ecological) credits that they use in lieu of building for instance more-expensive scrubbers for the emission (exhaust) towers of their manufacturing plants.

   3.2 Grants may be obtained from companies and wealthy families in exchange for naming rights of tree plantations or tree parks.

4. Lobby for the conversion of some of the international debts of the Philippines for the use of the TFCs or the creation of forest reserves or parks. This plan is similar to that engineered by Mr. James D. Robinson III, when he was chairman and CEO of the American Express in the 1980s. Mr. Robinson was able to help Costa Rica maintain its remaining virgin forests by swapping debts held by the American Express Centurion Bank for credits that were used for ecological purposes.

   4.1 Yes, it is the same Mr. James D. Robinson III, an American captain of industry. Mr. Robinson proposed the organization of a new entity that he called the “Institute of International Debt and Development (I2D2)” Details of the I2D2 may be found in my fifth article that the PhilippineTIME online magazine of Chicago, Illinois, has published. Readers may be able to access the article by going to http://www.philtime-usa.com/reinventing5.html.

   4.2 I tried to arrange the visit of Senator Pimentel with Mr. Robinson in the latter’s office in New York City during the senator’s trip to the United Nations in September 2003. However, Mr. Robinson had a board meeting in Connecticut and their respective schedules did not permit any meeting. Perhaps later this year or early next year, Mr. Robinson may be able to visit the Philippines and brief the national leaders of his experience in Costa Rica and his plan to make the Philippines the pilot project for the “I2D2” Initiative.

5. Foreign investment by international conglomerates and multinational concerns. The world is running out of hard wood. And pulp and paper are becoming scarce commodities due to the pressure by environmental groups against the destruction of virgin forests and even new-growth forests. It shall be easy to accept investments from foreign investors. The payment of the loans may be made by exporting to them the timber and lumber or even pulp and paper after an agreed period of gestation period. Wood is certainly one of the best renewable sources of energy and building materials.

6. Taxes accruing from the increased usage of what are now essentially idle real estate and from the income taxes of the millions of farm workers benefited by contracts with the TFCs.

   6.1 A family of six that takes care of five hectares may easily earn an additional income of anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000 per year. A hectare of land may be able to grow 300 to 400 trees, depending on the variety. Five hectares, therefore, may accommodate at least 1,500 trees @ $1.00 per tree per year, the income shall reach $1,500 or the equivalent of Pesos 75,000. After the third year, the income increases, as some of the trees would then be bearing fruits.

7. Other sources of income that may be feasible, such as income from “ecological tours” that domestic and foreign tourists may undertake – just to see the revival of forests and the saving of endangered species. When and if this projected “ecotourism” gets developed, it will surely jump-start the Philippine tourism industry.

There are other social benefits that shall accrue by doing the proposed E4 Program. There will be downstream projects, aside from the cottage-industry production resulting from the harvests of fruits, the sale of lumber and timber, the dairy, tannery and leather craft industries from the raising of goats. When watersheds teem with vegetation and even wildlife, the TFCs may be able to generate their own power by operating their mini-hydro power dams. The TFCs may be able to provide cheap electricity to their villages or towns and sell the excess power generated to the district electric cooperatives or even to the National Power Corporation.

As the income of the people increases year after year, their towns, provinces and regions also amass bigger and bigger tax revenues. Pretty soon all of these political subdivisions may be able to afford participating in the building of the Filipino equivalent of the California Aqueduct, so that no farmer is left without water even at the height of summer.

When hardwood varieties of trees are planted on mountain ranges, slopes and hills, there is a need to construct permanent “logging” roads that may be used also for tapping marble and other mineral deposits. As the people get more and more financially independent, their political power increases and they obtain more respect. And all of these coming from the simple back-to-the-basics project of planting trees done a massive national scale.

Once the people start earning more, there will be a huge domestic demand also for wood and lumber. Because more and more of the families involved will decide to build better and more comfortable homes. The results will be like the chain reaction of a reactor, with the elements feeding themselves, as more and more economic benefits go to the people. By the time the first hardwood trees are harvested in 2024, the Filipino people would by then have started their second half of their millennium of recorded existence, counting from 1521 when the Magallanes expedition made the first chronicles about the inhabitants of what became the Philippine archipelago.

The E4 Program simply needs the honest-to-goodness stable and sincere leadership coming from the national level and the development of an equally-strong political will among the regional leaders and their constituents plus the support of Overseas Filipinos.

There is also the need for the people to force the national and local candidates to present platforms of government and of socioeconomic concerns. The people have to force, if needed, the candidates to discuss the issues about this proposal and other matters such as the repayment of the foreign obligations of the country. The people must speak during the 2004 election campaign and tell all congressional and senatorial candidates that they should all pledge to give up their multimillion “Countryside Development Funds.” Otherwise the voters shall support only those who pledge in writing to give up the pork barrel.

An adage says, “only God can make a tree.” But surely a Filipino forestry scientist or agriculturist can make things happen with a seed or a bud and grow it to become a tree. The Filipinos do not need divine intervention a la Deus ex machina to reinvent their landscape and improve their lot. They only have to plant 100 million trees from 2005 to 2010 and repeat the cycle with every inauguration of a new Philippine President. This chance to reinvent the Philippine landscape eluded President Diosdado Macapagal and surely his daughter is failing also to see the vision and provide the direction.