Tambuling Batangas Publication April 11-17, 2018 Issue

OPINYON Abril 11-17, 2018 First harvest festival ng climate resilient palay, isinagawa sa Lobo Mamerta P. De Castro LOBO, Batangas, (PIA) -- Isinagawa ang kauna-unahang Harvest Festival sa bayang ito noong Abril 10, ang anihan ng mga iba’t ibang uri ng climate resilient varieties ng palay na itinanim sa Barangay Jaybanga. Sa pangunguna ng Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Provincial Office Batangas, ang naturang aktibidad ay bahagi ng Climate Resilient Farm Productivity Project ng DAR at isinakatuparan ng Jaybanga Irrigators Association (JIA). Ang proyekto ay naaprubahan noong Oktubre 2017 sa halagang P300K na kinapapalooban ng pagsasanay at pagtatakda ng may kalahating ektaryang lawak na techno demo farm. Kumuha ang DAR ng professional service provider upang matulungan ang mga miyembro ng JIA na maipatupad ng maayos ang programa dahilan sa ito ang unang pagkakataon na gagamit ng red at black variety ng palay. Sinabi ni Bing Rabino, Chief Agrarian Reform Officer na layon ng programa na mabigyan at magkaroon ng alternatibong maitatanim ang mga magsasaka na may mas mataas na halaga sa kabila ng kinakaharap na climate change. “Mas maganda ang presyo ng produkto lalo na po at in demand ang red at black rice sa merkado, bukod pa sa isinusulong sa ating bansa ang organikong pagsasakam.” wika ni Rabino. Ayon pa sa kanya, umaasa sila na kahit kalahati man lamang sa mga nagsanay ng organikong pagtatanim ay maisagawa ang kanilang mga natutunan sa pagsasanay. Tinalakay ni G. Philip Reyes, kinatawan ng Sea Pro Agricultural Sales and Services, ang professional service provider ng DAR ang project status mula sa pagsasagawa ng oryentasyon hanggang sa best practices gayundin ang The Beauty Standard in the Philippines Mary Claire R. Bautista If you live in the Philippines, you know that there are certain trends and beauty standards that Filipino women follows, This beauty standard sets a barrier to divide people with their idea of beauty. By definition, beauty is studied as a part of aesthetics, cultutre, social psychology, philosophy and sociology. An ideal beauty is an entity which is admired, it is the type of feature or structure that is broadly attributed in a particular culture for perfection. It is no doubt that each and every country has their own standard when it comes to beauty, and the Philippines is no different, in fact some of the beauty standards that Filipino women believes in is somehow confusing to other nations, nevertheless, the trend still continues. In the Philippines, most Filipinos adore a lighter skin complexion or fair skin. At the very young age, Filipino kids were already fed up by the beauty standards in the Philippines. Most kids at a very young age were told to stop playing in the sun because their skin might get darker or tanned, some of which were the opposite of what people call beautiful. Because of the beauty standard that Filipino people believes in, several whitening products could now be found in the market, in fact, it was stated in one research that the Filipinos are the number one whitening product users in the world. As a matter of fact, author and vlogger, Mike Grogan, pointed this out when he went shopping in the Philippines, He said, “This is something that confuses me in the Philippines, hundreds and hundreds of whitening products, why are Filipinos so obsessed with whitening products?” The answer for this question could be traced back in the cultural influences that Filipinos got from their Spanish colonizers. During those times, the Filipinos were considered as second-class citizen, and the Spaniard and American colonizers who has different features from us became our very standard of beauty, and we Filipinos started to be ashamed of our own skin color, In our own country we were ashamed of who we are. The mestiza beauty back then, is very hard to find, and those who are above us by status and power are the only people who possess it. The idea of being in a high social caste if you are a mestizo/ za is one of the reasons why Filipinos became obsessed in changing their skin color, but it should’ve stopped already, but instead it continued till our generation. The Filipinos idea of beauty has been fixed on the mestiza standard, we were led to believe that we must have fair skin to be beautiful, that we must have the characteristics of our colonizers to have power and confidence. This kind of mindset proves how the western standard for beauty was engraved to the Filipino people. Truth be told, beauty has its many benefits. It makes a person win in beauty competition, It can make someone famous, or help a person be attractive to the opposite sex. mga obserbasyon, isyu at rekomendasyon nila upang patuloy na maisulong ang organikong pagsasaka. Samantala, sinabi ni Vice Mayor Renato Perez na nakahanda ang bayan ng Lobo na ideklarang organic farming barangay ang Jaybanga kung magbibigay ng kanilang commitment ang mga residente na patuloy nilang isusulong ang organikong pagsasaka. Aniya pa, sana ay madama ng mga miyembro ng JIA ang tulong na ipinagkakaloob ng pamahalaang nasyunal at local para sa ikabubuti ng mga magsasaka dito. Sa mensahe ni Mayor Gaudioso Manalo, sinabi nito na ang suporta ng pamahalaang bayan ng Lobo ay hindi basta-basta dahil may nakahanay pang water impounding facility na nagkakahalaga ng P25M para sa mga magsasaka sa Jaybanga, Apar at San Nicolas. “Isinusulong po natin ang agro-tourism ng ating bayan kung kaya’t kailangan nating lalong paunlarin lalo na at unti-unti ay nakikilala ang Jaybanga Rice terraces,” ayon pa kay Manalo. Idinagdag pa nito na sa darating na tag-ulan ay nakatakda ang pamahalaang bayan na magtanim ng mga cherry blossoms at Dona Aurora sa mga tabi ng daan upang maging kaiga-igaya sa mga turistang magagawi sa kanilang bayan. “Naglaan po tayo ng pondong P200K para sa pagdilig sa mga punong itatanim na ito,” sabi ni Mayor Manalo. Sa pananalita ni PARPO Romeo Reyes, sinabi nito na dapat lamang na pagyamanin ng mga Agrarian Reform communities at Agrarian Reform beneficiaries ang kanilang lupain at huwag ibebenta. “Hindi batayan na hindi yumayaman sa pagsasaka, ang dapat isipin, malaking tulong ang nagagawa nito para sa bansa, ang magbigay ng pagkain sa sambayanan,” pagtatapos ni Reyes. (MPDeCastro-PIA Batangas) Realistically, nothing in this world sells better than a beautiful face. But the sad thing behind all of this is that the Filipinos fascination for beauty is making other people feel miserable and dissatisfied in their own. In a country where our skin- color is highly influenced by the genes of our Malay descendants, even if Filipino people scrub their naturally brown skin, it would still not be enough, and with everyone’s obsession and beauty standards, some were even forced to bleach their skin and take several medicines with the hopes of improving their skin color. In the Philippines, having darker skin can be the cause of constant mockery such as ita, negra, baluga, or uling, hence the pressure on changing their own skin colors. But why? Why should people be ashamed of who they are? Why does it seem as if, the more “Filipino” you look, the less beautiful you are? Why do people follow unrealistic beauty standard that they created for their selves? The Filipino beauty is so diverse, but why should it only be based on one standard? Why should people look less Filipino to be considered beautiful? I don’t understand and perhaps I never will. I always believe that each and every Filipino women are beautiful in their own ways, and different beauty standards such as pointed nose, fair skin, flat stomachs, slanted eyes and long straight hair shall never be the judge of our beauty. We are who we are and we shall never let our spirits be crushed by other peoples unrealistic expectation of how we should look like. For one, I think that Filipinos dark skin complexion is beautiful and we should never be ashamed of it, our flat nose is undeniably adorable, and our big round eyes shows the history of our ancestors which mirrors the Filipinos kind and compassionate heart. We don’t need to look foreign to be beautiful. Our insecurities should never be the boss of us. I believe that beauty should never be placed in a box; it should not be decided on one simple standard that is created to downgrade or make other women feel less beautiful. We are all beautiful and I believe that all types of beauty should be celebrated. Together, I believe that we can all make a change, together we can- and we will crush this beauty standards that divides us. This might be a cheesy way to end this but lets all be confident in our own skin, lets not set a barrier for what we believe is beautiful and empower each other. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again, We are all beautiful.

Tambuling Batangas Publication April 11-17, 2018 Issue | Page 5