By ERWIN ‘AMBO’ DELILAN
IN HIS sunset moment, the 85-year-old retired Fiscal Rolando Parpa Sr. has a fervent wish – the revival of the 56-year-old dilapidated Dacongcogon Sugar Mill (DSM) in Barangay Tabugon, Kabankalan City in Negros Occidental.
Though uphill since DSM has already been sequestered by Philippine National Bank (PNB) due to a debt of more than P70 million, the retired fiscal refuses to cease from dreaming of.
On behalf of the Dacongcogon Farmers and Producers Cooperative (DFPC), Fiscal Parpa, who is the sitting president, is knocking on the doors of the provincial capitol and Malacañang to take a look at this old sugar central and revive it again for the sake of the more than 10,000 small sugar planters and their dependents banking on its possible resurrection.
I talked to Fiscal Parpa and his wish is for President Bongbong Marcos to simply relive the legacy of his father, the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who established DSM 56 years ago.
“That is my wish before I die not for my sake but for the more than 10,000 people depending on the revival of the sugar mill,” the retire fiscal stressed.
SOCIAL JUSTICE
Reviving DSM through government intervention would be “social justice” for its small sugar farmer-dependents, according to Fiscal Parpa.
Why?
Because if the Lucio Tan-led PNB will pursue the takeover of the property through a writ of possession issued by the court in June, around 200 families or more 1,000 individuals within the 50-hectare mill compound will be dislocated.
Worse, tens of thousands of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) will lose hope for a viable sugar mill where they can bring in their sugarcanes and have these milled for a minimal transport cost or expenses.
The more DSM is rusting, the more that social injustice is prevailing within the hinterlands of CHICKS (Cauayan, Hinoba-an, Ilog, Candoni, Kabankalan and Sipalay) area, Parpa stressed.
Fiscal Parpa has a point. Insurgency in the south persists. It is a fact hard to ignore.
‘REDEEM US NOW’
Well, the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Kabankalan is already assessing the situation on how to assist displaced families just in case PNB takes over.
Fiscal Parpa acknowledged this saddest news.
“That’s why we are asking…we are appealing to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to redeem us now…to revive Dacongcogon central now,” he said.
Fiscal Parpa said DSM was Marcos Sr.’s legacy built in 1968.
He narrated that the establishment of this sugar mill was anchored on a very premise – to bring a sugar central closest to small planters, especially “at the heart” of the hinterlands of the CHICKS area in southern Negros Occidental.
Too, such was aimed at lessening the expenses of small planters in hauling and milling their sugarcane crops to other sugar centrals in the province.
DSM then was operated and managed by Dacongcogon Producers Cooperative Marketing Association, Inc. (DPCMA), or the DFPC now.
FORTICH’S ENTRY
Records speak, DSM was shining then in the south of the province until the entry of the late Bacolod Bishop Antonio Fortich as one of the mill’s board of directors.
Dubbed as the “Pilgrim of the Poor”, Fortich was a noted anti-Marcos prelate. He died on July 1, 2003.
Parpa neither confirmed nor denied this story behind DSM and Fortich. He said this has no valid confirmation or conclusion until now.
But he said after DSM halted its operations in 2008 -2009 crop year until now, the government seems to be reluctant to helping them. Not even the provincial government, he added.
STILL HANGING
Fiscal Parpa also recalled that they asked help from the late president Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino, but they were ignored.
They, too, asked help from former president Rodrigo Duterte but again, they were ignored.
Now, he said they are asking help from President Marcos Jr. and it’s still hanging.
Record showed that in 2023, CHICKS mayors – John Rey Tabujara (Cauayan), Daph Anthony Reliquias (Hinoba-an), John Paul Alvarez (Ilog), Rey Ruiz (Candoni), Benjie Miranda (Kabankalan) and Maria Gina Lizares (Sipalay) – in unison, signed a manifesto of support to DFPC’s urgent call for President Marcos Jr. to help revive DSM.
In response, on April 13 this year, Malacañang sent representatives from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU) to DSM to meet with the stakeholders in a meeting / assessment of the aging mill.
Parpa said the meeting went well but, until now, they’re still in limbo still on what’s the next action of the government to their appeal.
Reviving DSM is a positive move that could cause development and help attain peace and order in the hinterland of the CHIKCS area.
Fiscal Parpa said, “Why I am doing this? This is not for myself. I am 85 now, and I know I won’t stay long. But my very simple wish before my final date is to see Dacongcogon central back to its original form and operations for the sake for more than 10,000 dependents.”
It’s clear and no filter – just for social justice./PN
