In Photo: Major Gen. Nicanor E. Dolojan, commander of
the Light Armor Division, Philippine Army, and Dr. Isa Cojuangco Suntay,
chairman of the Tarlac Heritage Foundation, are shown in front of the entrance
of Hardin ng Lunas in Camp O’ Donnell in Capas, Tarlac. Pulling carts laden
with fruits and vegetables harvested from the camp’s Hardin ng Lunas are two
Boer goats being raised in the camp. (Photo courtesy of the Tarlac Heritage
Foundation.)
IF Lt. Gen. Gregorio Pio P. Catapang would have his way, all
15 military camps under his command would have farms.
Catapang, commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
If only each camp would be planted with organic fruits,
vegetables and herbs, and with each camp contributing 10,000 hectares each to
the organic-farming project, at least 150,000 hectares of military land would
become production centers of organic vegetables, herbs, fish, fruits, and goats
and cattle, he said.
After all, Catapang added, the “Hardin ng Lunas” currently
operating in three of his camps supply 60 percent of the food requirements of
his soldiers.
On February 10, together with the Tarlac Heritage
Foundation, Camp O’Donnell
Also inaugurated that day was a bahay kubo, symbolic of the
Filipino farmer’s rest hut in the middle of the field, and a kiosk where the
Hardin’s vegetable and fruit harvests were displayed and sold to the public.
The camp’s Hardin is an ongoing project of Camp O’Donnell
Dolojan said his soldiers spend their spare time tending the
gardens while performing their training activities to defend the country.
The Tarlac Heritage Foundation, under Dr. Isabel Cojuangco
Suntay, launched the organic garden in the camp in September last year. It is
the third showcase garden under the foundation’s project showcasing organic
planting, and animal and fish raising in the province of Tarlac
The first farm is found in Barangay Camangaan East in
Moncada, Tarlac, while the second is at Camp General Servillano Aquino in
Barangay San Miguel, Tarlac City
Suntay said the Hardin project encourages military personnel
and civilian employees to plant and tend organic vegetables, fruits and
medicinal herbs in military camps, which has become a source of food and
livelihood for the soldiers and their families.
On November 26, 2013, the foundation and Nolcom’s
Mechanized Infantry Division shared the bounty of their harvest with residents
of several barangays in Tarlac in a pre-Christmas celebration.
Aside from performing to the delight of the local villagers,
the soldiers gave away the fruits of their gardens. The food bags contained
tomatoes, pechay (Chinese cabbage), eggplants, okra (gumbo), brown rice,
locally called pinawa, and several live tilapia (cichlid fish).
Suntay said President Aquino, her second-degree cousin,
launched the first Hardin on December 1, 2012, in Camiling, Tarlac, with
the first Hardin opening on July 1, 2013 at Camp Gen. Servillano A.
Aquino on a 2-hectare fairway lot. The Hardin was planted with 75,038 vegetable
seedlings consisting of 56 varieties, 123 fruit trees, 150 ylang-ylang (Cananga
odorata) trees and 600 tilapia fingerlings.
Several typhoons that passed through Central
Luzon the past two years flooded the gardens and emptied the
camps’ fishponds, but the foundation and the soldiers persisted. The
three Hardins were replanted with fruits and vegetable seedlings, and the ponds
restocked with tilapia fingerlings.
Catapang may still get his wish of gardens teeming with
organic plants and ponds full of tilapia.
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