Sitio Malasag, Barangay Cugman---As agreed on their last meeting last June 27, a team of RAFEN members from the different DA attached agencies and line bureaus including ATI did a site visit in Sitio Malasag, Barangay Malasag. Spearheaded by Partnership and Accreditation Services Section (PASS) Chief Anita L. Molijon, the RAFEN Upland Project Ground Truthing transpired to assess where the team can offer assistance and intervention.

The Regional Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Network or RAFEN is composed of different DA attached agencies and line bureaus along with LGUs, members of the academe and other stakeholders which aims to share a commonality of activities to address pressing issues and concerns in the agriculture sector.

While at the production site of their wood carvings, Datu Jude Jabiniar with Ba-i Rosalia Maestre shared a brief history of the Malasag-Higaonon Tribal Council and the rise of their woodworking skills. The wood sculptures are outputs of the driftwood sculpture workshop sponsored by Smart Communications, Inc. for the Higaonon tribe last May and as a livelihood project with trainors from Banglos Community Artists in Quezon Province. The program not only created livelihood opportunities for the cultural community but also served as a way to showcase and preserve the Higaonon culture. Pooling their collective wood carvings, the members of the Malasag Indigenous Driftwood Sculptors successfully mounted an exhibit at the Sky Garden of SM CDO Downtown Premier.

As the training arm of the Department of Agriculture, ATI intended to offer capability enhancement trainings and programs as well as technical assistance to the cultural community of Higaonon to make them efficient farmers and in the long run, as Learning Site (LS) partner. OIC-Assistant Center Director Noemi Beth Lasmarias-Gomez Macario along with Administrative Officer IV Efren C. Macario and Media Production Specialist II Vic Thor Palarca rounded the ATI team.

Also in attendance was RAFC Chairman Prof. Edgardo Layug who believed that farming activities would complement and greatly benefit the cultural community of Higaonon once the intervention would kickoff.

The ground truthing and direct dialogue with the cultural community of Higaonon is a step closer to the harmonization of the activities of the different agencies in providing a more effective delivery of services.