A Tribute To Bishop Fortich at Diocese of Bacolod, Philippines, Bacolod City, Philippines 6100 PH - Magsaysay Awardee

THE 1973 RAMON MAGSAYSAY AWARD FOR PUBLIC SERVICE CITATION ANTONIO YAPSUTCO FORTICH and BENJAMIN CORTEZA GASTON The cane sugar industry traditionally, in the Philippines as in many countries, has fostered disparities in wealth that frustrate rising expectations. Every planter and worker knows the dilemma—as population increases—of sharing a father's job among several sons. For youth, prospects of finding dignity and a decent living are dim. As a solution for the depressed Dacongcogon Valley of southern Negros Occidental, BENJAMIN GASTON, in 1958, began looking for means to build a sugar mill. Residents were chiefly children of settlers to whom his father, as Provincial Governor, had distributed homesteads in the 1930s, or families whose resettlement he had himself administered in the early 1950s. Poor roads, inadequate capital and skills, and lack of organization forced farmers to sell meager crops at low prices to middlemen. By 1967, 80 percent of settled lands were subject to foreclosure for unpaid loans. Priest to the Negrenses for 23 years and a prime mover of social change in the province, ANTONIO FORTICH in January 1967 became Bishop of Bacolod. Deeply rooted in local conditions, he sought a just society of recognized rights and responsibilities, prodding planters and centrals (sugar mills), priests, politicians and the less privileged to cooperate in meeting glaring needs. From collaboration between the Bishop and GASTON grew creation, in 1968, of the Dacongcogon Producers Cooperative Marketing Association, Inc., now with 1,234 members. The next year they organized the Dacongcogon Sugar and Rice Milling Company, Inc. Alternating their original positions, the Bishop now serves as head of the company and GASTON of the cooperative. Financial ingenuity allowed acquisition of an old sugar mill in Silay and its transfer to Dacongcogon as the first project of the company. The mill's former owners and the National Investment and Development Corporation hold 13.7 million pesos in stock for sale only to Cooperative members who contribute four pesos from their return on each 63.25-kilo picul of their 60 percent of sugar milled. From the small first and second crops of cane milled, the future owners have accumulated P862,000 to buy shares. Beginning with the 1975-76 crop, the Dacongcogon Company is to repay over 15 years the P27 million borrowed from the Philippine National Bank. Utilized to move, establish and modernize the 1,500-tons-per-day mill, this loan also financed roads, tractors and trucks. Special presidential sanction allowed the Development Bank of the Philippines to restructure old loans to farmers, who, in turn, are showing encouraging capacity to learn to repay their new crop loans. Notable among donations are technical assistance from the Victorias Milling Company, cane points from established planters and Provincial Government help on roads and bridges. Following his bishop's lead, the parish priest has persuaded farmers to work together and hold onto their land. While skeptics question whether these small planters will be led astray by their new cash resources or sell out to larger interests, the Cooperative has increased tenfold the members who have secured title to their lands. Corn and upland and lowland rice are also producing yields and prices new to these formerly subsistence farmers. Economic vitality in the "Valley of Tall Grass" is evidence of what people, church and government can accomplish together, under effective and enlightened leadership. In electing Bishop ANTONIO YAPSUTCO FORTICH and BENJAMIN CORTEZA GASTON to receive the 1973 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes their engineering of an experiment in rural development giving small, indebted farmers in Dacongcogon Valley control of their livelihood and new hope. ****************** A PERMANENT INSTITUTION "In death, Bishop Antonio Fortich will continue to be a permanent institution in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental, and very likely, of the whole country," former Bacolod mayor Evelio Leonardia said. "He was there during the most trying and controversial times of our history and soberly led his flock through all challenges," he said. "I grieve for him, not only because of what he had been to my family but also because he was there in the most significant moments of my life: He officiated at my baptism, my confirmation, and even my marriage," Leonardia said. "He will live forever in my heart and in the hearts of his fellow Negrenses," he added. Ann Ledesma, who, along with other close supporters of Fortich, made sure that he was well taken care of and comfortable while at the hospital, said he was a man of courage for speaking the truth even if it was not the popular thing to do. He really lived up to his motto from Timothy II 4:2 that says "Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction," Ledesma said. Presidential brother-in-law Ignacio Arroyo said Fortich "was a beacon of hope in a church once too often beset by internal crisis and in a nation often burdened by economic difficulties and conflicts." "We are collectively diminished by his passing but we must also collectively draw strength from the legacy he left behind - his legacy of service to people," Arroyo said. Fortich's staff at the foundations he ran for the needy were also grief-stricken yesterday. Brisilda Tinosan recalled how Fortich always thought of other people and how, at Christmas, he remembered to give them and their children presents. Fortich was under the care of his nurse Galilee Caro and some nuns when he died, but many of his friends and priests had also been keeping close watch on him.*CPG

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