Alvarez will be sound adviser on land reform

Last October 28, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed former Senator Heherson Alvarez as her presidential adviser on land reform. Alvarez is an excellent choice for that position. "I’m happy," he said, "that the President has given her full trust and confidence in me, especially that of a post closest to my heart." In our opinion, GMA could not have picked a better person for the post. Alvarez was one of the main authors of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, so what he will be doing in his new position is to implement the law he authored. Very few lawmakers have had that opportunity.

I have known Alvarez and his wife Cecile Guidote-Alvarez for many years. I know their commitment to the nation. They sacrificed several years of their lives fighting the Marcos dictatorship. Upon their return to the Philippines after their exile, they did not stop working for the full restoration of democracy in our country. Sonny Alvarez has never wavered in his faith that the country can heal its own wounds.

Here is my eyewitness account: I have known Heherson "Sonny" Alvarez as a member of the first Board of trustees of the Philippine Educational Theatre Association which I chaired from 1967 to 1972. He had keen organizational talents; he was eloquent in defense of human rights and an effective spokesperson for the support of traditional cultures and historical memory perhaps because he considered himself as a katutubo. Besides Ilocano, he speaks Ibanag, Gaddang, Itawis, and dialects of indigenous peoples in Region II. Yet he was passionate in the use of Pilipino, the national language to forge our national identity. It was Alvarez with his UP connections that gave Virgie Moreno’s play, had it translated into Pilipino as Bayaning Huwad by Willie Sanchez and secured the Madrigal singers to provide live music to inaugurate the unique open air Rajah Sulayman Theatre in Fort Santiago under the brilliant direction of Cecile Guidote and the support of Doroy Valencia. The rest is history.

PETA’s training and sustained production and international liaison built the foundation of a national theatre and Third World Cultural Movement which has just been honored by a special prize by the Japan Foundation personally given by the Emperor of Japan and received by PETA’s current president Cecilia Garrucho.

Sonny served in the Aquino government as Minister of Agrarian Reform. He undertook milestone directives, the inclusion of a farmer representative in the Landbank Board, computerization of documents and the operation of barefoot lawyers to reach and assist farmers in far-flung communities.

Elected in the Senate, he crafted and sponsored the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. He likewise was an environmental advocate calling attention to the dangers of climate change and nuclear disasters focusing on watershed reforestation and protection of the seas from land-based pollution and promoting the discipline (garbage recycling and composting).

The poor farmers, fisher folk and the indigenous communities have a champion in Alvarez, a patriot, social reformist and Christian democrat. His vast experience will prove invaluable as the government moves forward.