Millennial Muslim finds deeper meaning in Eid al-Adha

Published: August 12, 2019 12:22pm | PUERTO PRINCESA CITY


Meet Clarck, a shy young man. He’s a millennial and a Muslim. “I’m 100 percent proud to be a Muslim. I believe that Islam is the perfect way of life,” said the 18-year old who works as a food crew for Yamang Bukid Farm, an emerging farm tourism destination in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. “Islam is the way for me to become a good Muslim,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.

As a Muslim teenager working in a predominantly Christian company, Clarck—whose real name is Sabdano Ian Clarck Longno—was elated that he was warmly embraced by fellow employees and company officers.
“As a Muslim, I saw no religious discrimination here in Yamang Bukid. They do not look on people based on their religion. They treat me as a son. They would scold me into eating if i skipped meals,” the soft-spoken teenager said.

Clarck is among the four young Muslims in Yamang Bukid Farm and its parent company Yamang Bukid Healthy Products Inc. (YBHPI) who will join with the 10.7 million Filipinos and over 1.8 billion others worldwide in observing Eid ul-Adha or the Festival of Sacrifice, one of Islam’s most revered religious holidays.
The holiday that starts in the evening of Aug. 11 and ends the next day, remembers the sacrifice of the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) when Allah commanded him to kill as an offering his only son Ishaq (Isaac). As in the Bible, the Quran tells that before Ibraham could carry out the deed, Allah intervened and sent down a lamb to be slaughtered instead.

“I felt valued and respected despite being a Muslim. I also observed that we are the same in giving value to the family,” Clarck said. And how will he celebrate the holiday?
Like most Muslims, Clark said he will go fasting a day before Eid al-Adha. He plans to attend the salah by going to the masjid to pray and do any good deed towards his fellow Muslims (zakah).
“After the salah I might go celebrate with my siblings. We will enjoy the celebration with limitations based on the teachings of Allah (Swat),” said Clarck.


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  • PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—Information technology ministers from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines-East Asia Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) visited Palawan’s emerging agriculture tourism destination Yamang Bukid Farm on Thursday, immersing with local farmers and learning about sustainable agriculture and tourism.

    Undersecretary Mano Verabathran of Malaysia’s Ministry of Communication and Multi-media led the delegation of representatives from the four-country sub-regional bloc.

    The foreign guests were accompanied by their Filipino counterparts and representatives from the provincial and local governments in the hour-long tour around the six-hectare farm at Barangay Bacugan here

    Upon arriving, the visitors were greeted by a flash mob performance of flag-waving farmer-employees of the farm. Hope Alas, Yamang Bukid Farm’s tourism officer and several lady-farmers led the guests to a guided tour around the farm, visiting the picture-perfect sunflower garden, nursery of herbal and ornamental plants, the farm’s bee yard, clamping tents and other parts of the sprawling upland getaway before being treated by performances of Filipino folk dances from some young farm workers and a sumptuous lunch featuring authentic Filipino dishes. “It’s a very beautiful farm, and I like the way that you all have the farming going back to the people,” Verabathran said.

    The Malaysian official also praised the farm’s unique business model of giving importance to the welfare of its workers as “it’s not too profit-oriented and it’s more of people going independent of the farming”, even as he cited it as a good farming model for the sub-regional bloc.

    “I’m sure that different models are applied in Malaysia but this seems to be more soft, soft model. Everybody is happy. You’ll realize everybody is happy here. We came here and there is dancing,” said Verabathran, who gamely obliged when prodded by his host to a round of Filipino courtship jig “tinkling,” much to the delight of everyone.

    “So maybe we can inject happiness into the other models, within BIMP-EAGA,” he added. Souvenir bags made of indigenous materials and adorned with designs painted by the farm’s in-house artists Julio Opiala and Jjoy Umambong were given to the guests, who in turn, bought Yamang Bukid Healthy Products such as turmeric 10-in-1 tea and local delicacies like the famed suman sa bulo or sumbulo, a rice cake of varied flavors cooked in bamboo.

    The foreigners were in Puerto Princesa for a four-day information communication and technology (ICT) cluster meeting among top Cabinet officials from the BIMP-EAGA member-states. Malaysia, headed by Verabathran, is the current cluster chair. Kuala Lumpur will head the bloc until 2021 and Manila will follow the next three years after that.
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UP expert urges farmers: Keep forests in farms

  • PUERTO PRINCESA CITY——A University of the Philippines-educated crop scientist has urged farmers engaged in natural and organic farming to plant trees and take care of the forests in and around their landholdings to ensure the sustainability of their areas. Dr. Elderico Tabal said farmers should understand the need to balance their farming needs with nature in order to help stabilize the soil and benefit their crops.

    The thick forest cover on the fringes of the 20-hectare Yamang Bukid Farm at Bacungan, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan is an excellent buffer zone and breathing space for crops grown within Palawan's emerging farm tourism destination|JM Zap

    “Agriculture without a forest is a dead agriculture. The only way to be resilient is to put a forest within your land,” Tabal, an agronomist, told farmers and officials from the local government units of Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan provinces as well as representatives from the Department of Agriculture (DA) during the 7th Regional Organic Agriculture Conference (ROAC) at the A&A Plaza Hotel here, Sept 25.

    Dr. Elderico Tabal, a UPLB-educated agronomist stresses the importance of forest cover in agriculture during the 7th Mimaropa Organic Agriculture Congress at Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, Sept. 25.|Jennifer Milante

    Tabal, who is a faculty member at state-run Western Mindanao State University (WEMSU) and consultant of tourism destination Yamang Bukid Farm, said putting or keeping forests within their landholdings can help farmers or farm owners maintain biodiversity and maintain sufficient water supply to the Farm.

    Tabal, said Yamang Bukid Farm, which has over 20 hectares of landholdings in Barangay Bacungan here, follows the natural and biological ways of agriculture. Composed of six sub-farms, two of it are open for the public as Yamang Bukid Farm’s agri-tourism site, while four others are off-limits and planted with high-value commercial crops and herbs (HVCCH).

    “At Yamang Bukid, we follow the natural and biological farming system. We try to understand the way of Mother Nature in agriculture,” said Tabal. While the Farm is not certified as organic by the third-party Organic Certification Center of the Philippines (OCCP), Doctor Tabal said the Farm follows both the natural and organic way of farming to enhance production output.

    For instance, the Farm uses natural way of controlling pest infestations on its crops and plants by utilizing bees and other natural pest predators. The Farm also practices contour plowing and intercropping as it is located in an area of mostly rolling hills and few flat lands.

    Tabal urged farmers and farm owners to support planting of diversified crops to help attract and support population of natural predators and stop relying on commercial and harmful pesticides.

    “We also do minimal to zero tillage cultivation in order not to disrupt the soil structure and prevent erosion.

    Tabal said farmers, particularly those still starting up, should understand that organic farming is not an easy way of agriculture in its initial stages. “It’s a system that needs to be developed. It takes years to rebuild our lands to their original intended state. It takes years to rebuild your land. Be patient,” the forest scientist said. “It’s not just planting but growing the right crops in the right soil.” During the event which was participated in by over 300 farmers, farm owners and agriculturists, the UP-educated Tabal also discussed Yamang Bukid Farm’s various best practices that include, among others, propagating and raising native chickens and livestock, the introduction of herbs and other plants as pest control as well as the propagation of different animal species like over two dozen of colonies of stingless bees and the use of natural plant-based concoctions as fertilizers and pesticides.

    Tabal also announced the various expansion efforts at the Farm’s tourism destination component, saying the farm has become among the must-see destinations in Puerto Princesa and the whole of Palawan.

    It has nearly 300 employees, over 90 percent of whom are former illegal loggers.
    (JL)
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Muslim lass is ‘child’ to Christian co-workers at Yamang Bukid

  • To the farmers and adult co-workers, she is their anak (child). To her younger co-workers, Radzma is a reliable and friendly fellow.

    Also known as Radz to friends and colleagues, Radzma Sabturani is a Muslim girl working in a predominantly Christian company, Yamang Bukid Healthy Products Inc. (YBHPI).

    Despite the difference, it did not hinder her to work with co-employees and interact with people having a different faith from hers. “I was overwhelmed. They treated me fairly even if they are Christians,” Radzma recalled.

    The 21-year old lass from the Pangutaran tribe is among the handful of Muslim employees of YBHPI and its subsidiary, Yamang Bukid Farm-Palawan, joining the over 1 billion Muslims around the world celebrating Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice). Radome, who has a degree in hospitality management, said her fears of being discriminated against for being of different faith evaporated when she was warmly accepted by fellow employees, almost all of whom Christians.

    “I was overwhelmed; everyone treated me as an equal. I quickly became friends with them,” she said.

    The young Muslim girl was also happy her parents did not object to her working in a “Christian company.”

    A former scholar of Yamang Bukid and assigned as accounting staff at the Yamang Bukid Farm in Palawan, Radzma is currently doing administrative duties at the YBHPI national office in Quezon City.

    “Our relationship among employees and the management is tight. Here, we are not just employees. We are a family,” she said.

    The company has been known to foster religious and cultural diversity, supporting and embracing employees from various cultures and with different religious beliefs.
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