BAGUIO CITY -- Living in Ifugao province, home of the World Heritage-inscribed rice terraces, offers a less hospitable lifestyle compared to life in Baguio City. 

The average income of a Baguio family comes up to 163,085 pesos in a year while an Ifugao family earns just a third, or about 57,481 pesos for the same period. 

This "glaring provincial divide" will characterize the state of the region report to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Monday, before she delivers her State of the Nation Address (SONA), the Inquirer learned. 

Residents, students and officials of Baguio City will engage the President in a live interactive discourse along with representatives of Quezon City, Cebu City and Davao City hours before the SONA at 3 p.m. on Monday. 

Although the Cordillera Administrative Region posted "a rebound" of 3.9 percent in its 2002 growth regional domestic product (GRDP), following a 0.025-percent GRDP plunge in 2001, the region's climb out of poverty continues to be laborious, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) points out. 

"The average family income in the urban areas is still more than two-fold that of the rural areas (represented by 218,339 pesos in urban Cordillera against only 95,635 pesos in rural Cordillera)," according to a briefing document that will be read to Ms Macapagal by Benguet Governor Raul Molintas. 

Molintas chairs the Cordillera regional development council. 

Glaring divide 

"We have been more successful in reducing urban poverty (at 13.1 percent compared to 49.9 percent in the rural areas). More than a quarter of families in the rural areas are still living in extreme poverty," the report said. "The provincial divide is also glaring. Development continues to be concentrated in the Baguio-Benguet area while the rest of the provinces, especially Ifugao, lags behind." 

Ms Macapagal had identified the restoration of Ifugao's terraces as one of her flagship projects following last year's SONA. 

Ifugao Governor Teodoro Baguilat Jr. had wanted to cultivate the age-old links between the terraced rice and the community's cultural rituals to restore a measure of value to tinawon (the Ifugao rice variety grown once a year). 

The President had also made the vegetable industry crisis in the provinces of Benguet and Mountain Province a centerpiece project, after unabated smuggling and importation of European and Chinese vegetables displaced their homegrown products from Metro Manila markets last year. 

But agriculture had never been the Cordillera's strongest suit, despite its predominance in the various provinces, said Rudy Labarinto, a NEDA macroeconomist. 

"The agriculture sector slipped to a negative 0.5 percent performance in 2002 from a hefty 8.7 percent (growth) in 2001 due to significant drops in the contribution of palay (unhusked rice) and other crops," the Cordillera report said. 

Fruits, Veggies

The same report reveals "a negative 3-percent dip in performance" of semi-temperate fruits and vegetables grown in Benguet, Mountain Province, parts of the provinces of Kalinga and Apayao "mainly from the influx of imported vegetables." 

Labarinto said the Cordillera's growth relies traditionally on Baguio's industrial output. Texas Instruments Philippines Inc. and other semiconductor and electronics firms at the Baguio Economic Zone have recovered from a 2001 slump, and boosted growth by contributing 39 percent to the overall GRDP output, according to the Cordillera economic brief. 

The document noted a negative 3.8-percent decline in growth for the construction sector, but the "rebound of the mining sector (at 18.2 percent compared to a negative 9.5 percent in 2001) made up for the continued slowdown in construction." 

A factor for the slowdown is the region's road condition. "Given our rugged terrain and topography which makes traditional road construction expensive, the Cordillera remains to have the least developed road system in Luzon with a mere 30 percent of its national road paved (compared to the regions of Ilocos and Cagayan Valley)," the report said. 

It said the contractor for the rehabilitation of Halsema Highway, Benguet's major link to Mountain Province, had stalled work because the government failed to release its "progress billings of 95 million pesos" that dates back to September 2002. 

However, the region's good news is a perceived improvement of the average family incomes of Baguio, Benguet, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Abra, Kalinga and Apayao.