Bohol leaders are “barking on a right tree” because the search for the best anti-rabies fighters is essential to agriculture and tourism, two of the “HEAT” priorities of the new capitol administration.
HEAT means Health, Education, Agriculture and Tourism. Award organizers said there is no need to explain how can the fight against rabies serve the people’s health.
No less than Gov. Edgar Chatto led in launching during the opening of the Sandugo Agri-Technology Fair the Gov. Edgar M. Chatto Awards for Best Performing Municipal Rabies Prevention and Eradication Councils (MRPECs) and Bantay Rabies sa Barangay (BRBs).
Provincial veterinarian Dr. Stella Marie Lapiz briefly yet effectively hinted on how “essential” is the anti-rabies campaign to agriculture and tourism.
A tourist fatally bitten by a rabid dog in Bohol can discourage other tourists from going to Bohol, Lapiz asserted.
For the number one government animal doctor and anti-rabies officer in the province, tourists who are already staying in the province will likely fear to roam around on feet to avoid dog bite.
They can thus miss more satisfying sight at or intimate experience with Bohol nature.
The mere sight of a stray dog can intimidate the tourists, some who were listening to Lapiz seconded the provincial veterinarian whose office has been frontlining the anti-rabies campaign provincewide.
Because of its domino impact on so many other industries, tourism has been declared in the National Tourism Act of 2009 as an engine for economic recovery and growth. The law, also known as Republic Act 9593, was principally authored in Congress by Chatto.
As the then First District solon, Chatto likewise authored Republic Act 09446 declaring Bohol as the Eco-cultural Tourism Capital of the Philippines.
On the other hand, the case of a rabid dog bite can be so economically wounding on a lowly farmer owning the culprit animal.
He has to spend as much as P25,000 for the treatment of the victim of his dog. Because he has no money, the poor farmhand will be forced to sell his lifetime farm co-worker, his carabao, Lapiz said.
Losing his carabao can render the lowly farmer less productive, what with the four-legged beast of burden his only “machine” for cultivation.
Former agriculture secretary and now Third District Rep. Arthur Yap, also present in launching of the search, himself observed that a Bohol rice farmer’s yield is lesser compared to the harvest of the farmers in other provinces.
This is occurring despite the existing of more irrigation facilities and lesser storms in Bohol, the solon said.
Agriculture Regional Director Ricardo Oblena, provincial Agriculturist Liza Quirog and her assistant, Larry Pamugas, also attended the affair. Pamugas is the designated head of the Office of the Provincial Agriculture since Quirog has been tasked by the governor to head a sensitive coordinating unit.
Yap did not speculate, though, on “how can rabies frustrate a farmer” since he chose to focus on what crops can a farmer cultivate to earn more per hectare. The ex-secretary of agriculture even burst to “forget” the “low-paying crops.”
Lapiz” statements relating rabies to agriculture and tourism still obviously “made sense” to her listeners during the launching of the search, which institutionalization was firmed up in a symbolic signing also led by the governor.
In motherhood statement, Bohol has been envisioned to become a prime eco-cultural tourism destination and a balanced agro-industrial province.
Bohol used to be one of the top three provinces in deaths due to rabies, but this cannot guarantee of no rabies death to occur again if efforts to prevent any are relaxed.
In launching the Bohol-wide search for best anti-rabies councils, the governor at the same time took the occasion as an apt time to acknowledge Lapiz’ office and her personnel.
The Office of the Provincial Veterinarian (OPV) is one of the most effective offices of the provincial government, according to Chatto.
The governor cited not just OPV’s sustained programs on dog vaccination, elimination and information drive on responsible pet ownership.
He lauded OPV’s effective handling of the province’s livestock development thrust thru the Barangay Livestock Aides (BALA), a provincial anti-poverty program winning the national Galing Pook Award.
Lapiz has entrusted BALA to an able provincial coordinator of the program, Robert Milan Galero, an OPV personnel and officer of the Bohol Tri-Media Association.
The BALA was established when the governor was then Rene Relampagos, now the First District congressman, and the vice governor was Chatto himself.
Relampagos attended, too, the launching of the search for the best council against the killer rabies.
Winners of the Bohol search can be known in mid-August to compete in the national level. (Ven rebo Arigo)
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