Occidental Mindoro lost a farmer leader that will be put to his final resting place in Barangay Central Public Cemetery tomorrow, November 14, 2020.
I remember the man well way back from my younger years. His voice rings last and hit the pages of national media when he spoke against the rice liberalization law last October 2019. Speaking as national chairman of the Federation of Free Farmers or FFF, Ruben Presilda expresses scepticism in the country’s economic managers saying that they are the ones pursuing said law which is very disadvantageous to the farmers not only here in our province but all over the land.
Before that, in 2018, Ka Ruben, father of my former boss and erstwhile station manager of DZYM-AM Glovyn Presilda (now Alegrado), warned that the agriculture sector is about to lose revenue worth P60 billion per year if the rice tariffication bill is enacted, and warned that politicians could get their hands on the collected tariffs. That was Ka Ruben, a fighter who truly served.
The youthful Ruben who was just tied knots with the former Gloria Robles joined the FFF in 1969. History would lead us to information that the FFF is a prominent farmers’ organization and cooperative founded in 1953 by Jeremias U. Montemayor. With the help of Fr. Walter Hogan, S.J., and the Jesuits’ Institute of Social Order (ISO), Montemayor also sought to concretize the social teachings of the Catholic Church.
Ka Ruben was born in Samar but was raised in Manila. He studied in Saint Scholastica School for Boys and later enrolled at the well-known Torres High School in Tondo. He finished (BSBA) Commerce at the University of the East. He migrated to San Jose, Occidental Mindoro when he married his teacher wife in 1967. He became a farmer advocate since then and stood with the working class in their struggle for land reform during Marcos years.
Ka Ruben lived for five decades for the cause of the farmers and all the programs and policies for the good of the peasantry. He had been close lieutenant of then agriculture secretary Leonardo Q. Montemayor and helped his principal in accomplishing growth and development of agriculture which is the life-blood of our economy. He will be laid to rest one day before the province he considered home will celebrate its 70th founding anniversary.
In 1988, a year after the so-called EDSA revolution, he was appointed board member of the province. Though he did not pursue his political career for reasons only known to him, he held various chairmanships in many farmers’ organizations and councils that are related to agriculture. He also served as regional chairman of the Agriculture and Fishery Council, among others. Moreover, he also held the chairmanship for the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council from Corazon C. Aquino up to Rodrigo R. Duterte.
He succumbed to massive stroke in Mamburao while having a meeting on taxation at the Farmers’ Training Center at the Provincial Capitol Compound with the provincial treasurer last November 6, 2020.
He
died with his farmer’s shoes on, so to speak.
Your life is in itself is a bountiful harvest. The stewards of the soil will surely miss you.
Farewell, Ka Ruben.
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(Photo of Maam Glo and Ka Ruben from Glovyn P. Alegrado's Facebook page)
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