Ms. Sylvia Clemente, FAO/UN Consultant, visited our office this morning. She was accompanied by Ms. Corazon Estocado of the Department of Agrarian Reform. Atty. Cambangay, the head of our office, the Provincial Planning and Development Office, invited me to join him in answering questions from the mission.

She was actually the 6th consultant from DAR to visit us since last year here at the Capitol. I remember one lady consultant who borrowed the CD version of the Poverty Reduction framework She said she would just copy it in her laptop back in the hotel. That was the last time we heard of her. Like all the hordes of consultants and researchers from all sorts of agencies before her, she did not give us even a draft copy of her report.

All the previous 5 consultants working on agrarian reform practically asked the same question: how do we integrate the ARC plans with the LGU planning process? It gets so taxing, for me at least, to answer the same question each time that a DAR consultant comes around, particularly if it's already phase 3 of the project. Don't they ever compare notes?

These consultants and researchers (from DAR Manila and other agencies) just appear here and we extend to them all the cooperation we can muster. We spend an average of two to three hours per visit of consultants and researchers to our office. In most instances, we even arrange their appointments with other agencies. Not that we are complaining; it's just that they should at least give us a summary of what they have found out here and their recommendations. We don't even bother to ask them about their TOR and credentials. Everything's taken in good faith. But it looks like they do not regard us as their equal; they do not even bother to tell us about the results of their mission.

All we want is for them to be fair with us. Perhaps we can learn a thing or two from their reports. Let's see if Ms. Clemente will be different from the rest of them.

There, I finally managed to say it. It has been bugging me for a long time, this unpleasant feeling that we are just being used by some people.