Plenty of idle lands in PH

This has reference to the Inquirer editorial on biofuel production (“Wasted billion,”

Inquirer, 11/12/11), and I quote: “But their success with bioethanol, which is largely produced from food crops (e.g., corn, sugar, cassava), soon unearthed a downside: while providing higher income to farmers, the industry competed with food production, eating into agricultural lands and thus diverting…”

I have to disagree. This view is erroneous. In the Philippine context, it does not apply. Haven’t you traveled to the countryside? To Samar, Mindoro, Palawan, the Bicol region, to Northern Luzon? Haven’t you seen how vast are the wasted idle lands on which only thorns and cogon grass grow?

Unseen powers have been dictating to us not to pursue independent economic programs. These  powers would like to see the Philippines, a developing country, remain undeveloped.

And we accept without question every subliminal suggestion with regard to the agricultural policies we should adopt. Until now I cannot comprehend why when I was in primary grades, we were taught to sing, “Planting rice is never fun…” when the Philippines is an agricultural country, and rice is the staple food of the Filipinos.

It seems some people are scheming not to make our country a place that is fit to live in. They want to maintain it as paradise to be robbed.

—BOB GABUNA, kapihan@hotmail.com