By Hanah Tabios Catanduanes, which takes pride as the abaca capital of the Philippines, suffered more than half a billion pesos in production losses due to the spread of the bunchy top virus which now heavily infects abaca plantations in the province. (Photo from Wikimedia) Ironically, Catanduanes annually celebrates Abaca Festival to acknowledge the versatility of its main source of livelihood and major commodity which brought the province to fame. In data exclusively obtained by the Manila Bulletin, the province’s total fiber loss based on its latest assessment period is now 7,872,787.87 kilograms which correspond to P535,349,575 in production losses. According to the data, the province, which just bounced back from the devastation brought by Typhoon Nina in 2016, has 31,921 hectares of abaca plantation. Out of this, only 25,004 hectares or 78.46 percent is planted with the famous Manila hemp. In the initial report of the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PFIDA), it revealed that as of October 2019, 4,920 hectares or 19.65 percent of the 31,921-hectare abaca plantation in Catanduanes is considered the diseased area and is now subject to rehabilitation. Provincial fiber officer Lorgen Garcia told Manila Bulletin that another 6,876 hectares of abaca land across all 11 municipalities in Catanduanes were assumed to have been wiped out by the abaca virus and will also be subjected to rehabilitation. Among the towns, Caramoran is deemed hardest hit, with a disease incidence of 52 percent. In view of the problem, PFIDA officers recently appealed for assistance from the national government to carry out the rehabilitation of the diseased areas. They made the appeal over a local radio show even after farmers exerted efforts to eradicate the problem through abaca disease management program (ADMP), among others. Last week, provincial councilor Rafael Zuniega filed a resolution urging the Department of Agriculture to allocate around P100 million for the rehabilitation. In his privilege speech, he said the current problem requires urgent intervention by concerned authorities. During the 17^th Congress, former Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento had lobbied to declare Catanduanes as “Abaca County” for being the biggest abaca-producing province in the Philippines.