Tuao is a municipality in the province
Cagayan in Region II (Cagayan Valley). It is seated about 31 km west-north-west
of the provincial capital Tuguegarao City and about 353 km north of the capital
of the Philippines-Manila. The recorded history of Tuao began in 1604 when it
was founded by the Spanish Civil Government. The backbone of the local economy
since time immemorial is predominantly agricultural. The municipality is now
composed of 32 barangays. Agrarian Reform Beneficiary (ARB) Domingo Darisan, born
on October 30, 1930 resides in barangay Bulagao, in Tuao, Cagayan where he was able to create his own successful life story.
As a young man, he never took life
seriously as he was described by his peers as a “bad boy”, that it is, a
gambler, hard drinker, a man who is an avid admirer of women, etc. He experienced
being a laborer, a carpenter, a farm worker, a tenant who cultivated a small
portion of agricultural land belonging to landowner Vicente Querol, who because
of his diligence and dedication to work, entrusted him with the cultivation of
around five hectares more, which he shared with others. He planted tobacco,
corn, palay, etc.
He was married to Elilia Aggangan where
they had three children before the latter died. He was later on re-married to
Prudencia Aggangan wherein and they had additional seven children. Meantime, he
continued to work hard to sustain the needs of the family. Still being poor, he
recalled the days that he and his children worked in the fields as farm
laborers to have food on the table.
Upon the implementation of Operation
Land Transfer under Presidential Decree No. 27, he was one of the identified
farmer-beneficiaries of the Vicente Querol landholding in Bulagao, Tuao, Cagayan
having been covered under the program, being planted to rice and corn, and
tenanted. As a duly identified agrarian reform beneficiary, the parcel of land was
actually tilling was awarded to him. He later on received his title to the
land, that is, an Emancipation Patent containing an area of 1.9497 hectares,
more or less. Being an agrarian reform beneficiary, he had access to
opportunities provided by the government such as agricultural technologies, farm
production credit access and other forms of assistance.
It was this moment in his life that he
doubled his efforts in making the land productive, considering that he now owns
the land he tills. Aside from farming, he raised some pigs (he had 20 pigs) and
later sold them. With his savings, he bought a cow and with this single cow it
later multiplied into around 30-40 heads of cows. Still not contented, he
engaged in buying and selling fruits, that is, he bought mangoes and bananas
from the nearby municipality of Rizal, Cagayan and sold them for profit in faraway
Bulacan province. Over the years, as he increased his efforts, he was able to
acquire farm machineries such as hand tractor, pump wells, an elf truck and a
mini dump truck to haul his crops. He now has a dozen employees to help run the
enterprises he is engaged in.
He later on acquired other properties
and now rests in his big concrete house, also taking pride in the success of his
children, that is, a real estate developer, a restaurant owner in Abu Dhabi, a
Seaman (Marine Engineer), a Nurse in Philadelphia (USA), a Medical
Technologist. Five of his ten children are presently residing in Abu Dhabi in
the Middle East and the others are all professionals in their own chosen
fields.
For ARB Domingo Darisan, the agrarian
reform program of the Philippine government is a life changing factor in
rescuing impoverished farmers in the countryside and transforming them into
farmer-entrepreneurs that are substantially contributing to the improvement of
the local economy. The program is able to create farmers like him towards principal
stakeholders in propelling communities into industrialization and as major players
in economies of scale. /christiandsales
