KIDAPAWAN CITY, (PNA) — A retired public school teacher in Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat was chosen as among the finalists for this year’s Outstanding Rural Women under the Department of Agriculture’s Gender and Development Program (GAD).
Rebecca Latog, 78, was among the six finalists chosen from 13 regional winnders from different regions in the country, according to Fe Ybañez, DA 12’s GAD focal person.
Ybañez said Latog, along with other five national finalists will still be subjected for final on-field validation by the National Technical Evaluators slated next month to determine who among them will grab the top spot.
Latog fondly called as Beckay was born on February 18, 1945 in Himamaylan, Negros Occidental to Ricardo Reginio and Estrella Tanate who hailed from Tubungan, Iloilo.
Ybañez said that Latog is an embodiment of an exceptional woman who is shaped even bolder and stronger by life’s hard experiences like her father and siblings’ loss.
“In her younger years, she worked as a nanny and a laundrywoman to support her schooling. She also ventured in selling pickled papaya and other things to earn for a living,” she added.
With diligence and conviction that poverty is not a hindrance to success, she graduated Magna cum Laude at Notre Dame of Kidapawan College with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and easily passed the Teachers’ Board Exam.
She landed a teaching job at Mao Elementary School in Ampatuan, Maguindanao and from then on she devoted 39 years of her life to educating people because she believes that education is very significant to an individual’s life.
Ma’am Beckay married Hector Latog, a farmer and an agriculturist by profession. They were blessed with three children who are now pursuing their chosen careers.
After her retirement in 2006, she became the hands-on manager-farmer of their farm while her husband serves as her partner in supervising their workers. Her husband also served as the marketing man together with their youngest child, Caesar.
Ybañez said Latog is a very innovative woman who always finds her way in trying new agricultural technologies introduced by the Department of Agriculture and other government and non-government organizations.
Ideally, Latog Farm practices integrated farming system adopting organic farming which augments family’s income.
Among her agricultural ventures is African oil palm production which was expanded to 16 hectares which the family gets 15 to 18 tons every harvest per hectare.
The family also has mango production with 120 bearing trees by which the family decided to have it contracted by a buyer from Digos City.
Out of her produce, he processes mango puree under the guidance of Cotabato Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium (CARRDEC) based in University of Southern Mindanao, Kabacan, North Cotabato.
The couple also grows banana which they process into crunchy banana crackers.
In 2011, Ma’am Beckay developed a 2,500-square meter lot within its oil palm production area into an organic rice project (semi rice terraces) through the guidance of their municipal agriculture office.
Adjacent to her rice field is her fishpond filled with tilapia fingerlings. She sells more or less 55-85 kilos per harvest at P65-70 per kilo.
She also raises farm animals like cattle and goats as well as poultry such as chicken and ducks.
Different vegetables are also planted on her backyards which she enriches with organic fertilizers. She has also planted rambutan, passion fruit, avocado, macopa, durian, and other high value crops.
Among these agricultural projects, Ybañez said, her initiative of producing indigenous mushrooms using empty bunches of oil palm with water and rock salt only manifests that she is a real “Magsasakang Siyentista.”
“She is regarded as the first Filipino to produce indigenous mushrooms such as Amakol, Makol-makol and Sal-ang without using spawns,” Ybañez said.
Twenty-four days after preparation of beds and application of concoction, she can harvest at least 2-4 kilos daily and sells it at P10 per pack.
Latog is also an advocate of environmental protection and preservation.
She continues to propagate mahogany, rattan, chestnut and coconut trees as well ornamental plants which she donates to the community.
Other thing which differs Latog from other rural women is her genuine bigheartedness as she and her family donated parcel of their lands to the community where a purok chapel, a kindergarten school, a warehouse with dryer, and a purok learning center were established.
“She even provided home lots to 21 families for free,” Ybañez said.
As she gives unfathomable value to education, she has been sponsoring students under the Department of Education’s Alternative Learning System (ALS). She provides them school supplies like ballpens and notebooks.
Ma’am Beckay is also an ALS volunteer as an English and Mathematics teacher mentoring 20 T’boli whose ages vary from 15 years old at Sitio Gumban, Barangay Titulok, a far-off village which is ten kilometers away from the town proper.
As a proactive woman, she is also instrumental in finding livelihood projects to rural women in the locality by linking them to various institutions that offer livelihood training.
Her being a servant leader catapulted her to be elected as officer of different women, farmers associations, and civil organizations such as being the Chairperson of the Multi-Sectoral Committee of the Mindanao Rural Development Program of Bagumbayan and is holding top positions in Rural Improvement Club from barangay, municipal and provincial levels. She is also full of zip in performing her religious duties.
Because of her good deeds and purity of intention in improving the face of rural communities and even the preservation of the environment, she was conferred with accolades by government agencies like the 2nd runner-up award in the Mindanao-wide Search for Magsasakang Siyentista, 1st runner-up, GAD Search 2012, and Wildlife Conservation Award granted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
“Indeed, she is an epitome of a true woman; a farmer-scientist and an environmentalist; compassionate to the cause of men and women in attaining a better life for all, and above all, a God-fearing person,” Ybañez said.
Because of this feat, Latog was awarded by DA-12 as awarded her with a plaque of recognition and cash award to highlight his contribution to agriculture in Sultan Kudarat and the region, according to DA-12 Director Amalia Jayag-Datukan.
In 2011, Remia Apostol of Koronadal City was first runner up in the national search and last year, Tiny Rosareal of Antipas, North Cotabato also won the national award.