The first road of a hill, and now villages, named after a president during the American period will have a new look as a giant mural will soon be seen there.

This time it is farming that will be featured in another mural project during the month of farming, said councilor cum artist-farmer Leandro Yangot, Jr. this week.

Yangot said that the nearly 60 feet, and 20 feet high at its highest, mural will grace the newly constructed wall at the (president Manuel) Quezon Hill first road.

Yangot said that launching and start of painting will be on May 27 of the mural that will feature farmers and the process they do and their hardship in bringing their produce to the market.

Rural Rising Philippines will back the project as it celebrates three years of partnership with farmers not just from the Cordilleras but all over the Philippines.

Rural Rising at Calle Uno

Rural Rising (RuRi) is a family owned non-government organization founded by Ace Estrada of Calle Uno, a co-sharing office.

The organization has more than 39,000 members from Batanes to Zamboanga and are benefitting from the support given by the Estrada family who help them market their produces.

It all started with the news of farmers dumping their produce because they will lose more if they bring it to the market, said Ricky Give, a former radio broadcaster, who acts as press release officer of the organization.

“Rather than dumping their produce elsewhere, why not bring here and we can find a market,” said the part time ring side announcer recognized by the Games and Amusement Board.

In May 2020, barely two months after its establishment, RuRi was asked by an Isabela-based farmers cooperative to buy their produces – pineapple.

In Resolution 29, series of 2020, the board and members of the Caviteno Isabelino Agriculture Cooperative made its appeal to RuRi “to buy our pineapple produces,…”

RuRi, in its Facebook page wrote: “This is so humbling for us, while at the same time a sad indication of how hard it has been for them.”

RuRi then sent a truck to pick up the produces but asked help on social media to help fund the endeavor which at that time was almost an impossibility due to the many check points getting to Echague, Isabela.

RuRi further wrote: “The logistics challenge will be immense with Isabela deep in the interior. Getting a truck through the checkpoints will not be easy, but try, we would like to try.”

It added: “Please, like we did for the farmers of Nueva Ecija, the farmers of Paracelis or the farmers of Ifugao and Mt. Province, will you contribute 700 pesos so we can send a truck and money to Isabela, fill it up, and bring it back to Manila?”

RuRi has offices or dropping points in Quezon City, at the University of the Philippines Village which is sometimes called the RuRi House, while the Ayala Group of Companies have been “nice to us by giving us space to market our produces in their supermarkets,” said Give.

Give said that buyers are mostly members of their Facebook group, the Rural Rising Philippines which has more than 139,000 likes and 178,000 subscribers.

“Some of them are celebrities – films and television and sports like basketball and volleyball,” said Give, who was ringside announcer of the Team Lakay presentation in Kabayan, Benguuet late last month.

In one of their sorties in a Central Luzon province, Angel Locsin tagged along.

Urban and Rural Farming

The mural is a sort of announcement of what Rural Rising does and aimed to encourage more farmers to join them, said Give.

Give said the wall served both good and bad for Calle Uno despite losing three businesses there when the road was widened and the wall placed to protect compound of the Estrada business which was put to a stop when the Covid 19 pandemic started in March 2020.

Give admitted that vegetables and farm products from the region saved them as they had something to do while helping farmers during the onslaught of the virus that caused lockdowns in more than two years.

The May 27 launching at Calle Uno will also host the awards rites of the recently concluded urban gardening contest led by Yangot. Yangot is founder of the Urban Gardening Association of Baguio, Inc.

Yangot and Give met last Thursday met to discuss the design of the mural and the paints and equipment needed to complete.

Yangot is expected to bring the Sin Agi Artists and Baguio Educators Art Guild members to lead the mural works with young apprentices from the various art workshops, mostly elementary and high school students, held by the two groups.

It will be the third mural spearheaded by Yangot after the biking mobility and Buyog watershed murals at the Climate Action Wall at Legarda Road. Pigeon Lobien