INTRODUCTION

The one statement I will always remember about the rural folk are the alpha and omega of rural development. This means that it is human development. Its administration should be a participatory human-centered management and should concentrate to help evolve people participation to empowerment. The ultimate goal in the implementation of rural development projects is to improve the quality of life. Raising the standard of living of the rural people for the self determination is the strategy. One of its objective is to help solve rural development problems. The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) according to her define these as poverty elimination and accompanying hunger and disease among others by the year 2015. One woman administrator I counted who has spent precious moments of her life planning, organizing and directing rural development projects is Dr. Fermina Talens-Rivera. Her life epitomizes the exemplary life of an educator, researcher, scientists, rural development administrator, a woman of strength worth emulating.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC ATTRIBUTES
Dr. Fermina Talens-Rivera celebrated her diamond birthday last July 7, 2005. She invited all her allies and close friends in rural development more than 3 decades of work. She considered this a celebration of life dedicated to the improvement not only of her own families lives, but also of the lives of rural folks. She said life to her is gods gift, and what one becomes, especially for uplifting their lives, is her gift to god. With her experience in the academe as administrator and with her outstanding accomplishments in various leadership roles and a loving mother of two daughters, she is definitely a successful person and a modern day heroine. Her academic preparations were polished by prestigious institutions like the university of the Philippines at Diliman (UP), for her batchelor of science in education, English as major and physical education as minor; Ateneo University for her master of Arts and Education And Guidance, minor in teaching English as a second language, at the University of the Philippines at Los Baos for her Ph.D major in Community Development, minor in Rural Sociology and Agricultural Education. She is happily married to Mr. Rodolfo Rivera who retired as Asst. Provincial Agricultural Officer of Nueva Ecija. They are blessed with two daughters. The elder daughter Dyna is a medical doctor from De La Salle University, while the younger one finished a short term course in Painting at the Philippine Woman University, Agribussiness School (ATAS), now the Aliaga Community Agribusiness Polytechnic School (ACAPS). She retired in 1995. She worked as an volunteer consultant at the Research Office at the Institute Of Graduate Studies until today. She is likewise a volunteer expert of Aliaga Local Government and two of its schools the ACAP TESDA schools and the Achievers Professionals Cyber School (APCS). A devoted woman Roman Catholic, she inherited this strong Christian fate from her mother who is daily communicant . At her age, she is still very active in her writing craft, consultancies in graduate teaching in rural development, hence her personal computer has remained a Necessity.

ATTITUDE TOWARDS GENDER CONCEPTS AND ROLE

A genuine advocate of gender and development, Dr. Riveras by word is equality whenever gender issue are concerned. Both husband and wife have equal roles in upbringing of their children and home management. They practice family dialogs for solving problems and planning what need to be done. She is not in favor of the stereo typed role the husband being the breadwinner. This is a shared responsibility. Her husband likewise believes in this so he allows her to spread her wings for her own happiness and the good of the family. On the division of labor at home, she enjoys doing household chores, including gardening. Her husband and daughter Jet are always there to do their bit. As to the distribution of times spent for various daily activities, Dr. Rivera makes it a point to take some rest for a minimum of 1 hour on weekdays and a maximum of 4 hrs. or more on Saturdays and Sundays.

ACTIVITY PROFILE IN THE WORKPLACE

Dr. Rivera joined CLSU in 1970 upon invitations of vice president Juan Viray and Director Teodoro Irabagon. As director of guidance at that time, she was Division Supervisor of guidance of Nueva Ecija under the Ministry of Education Culture and Sports before she came. When she joined the Director of research Office; Research and Extension were two separate programs each headed by a director. The merger of this two into R and D Program In 1976 was the result of her case study on research management published in SEARCAs book of case studies that year. She wrote the first and second 10-year R and D programs that the university used for the periods. 19761987 and 1987-1995. The Binhi Ng Buhay Projects for which she wants to be known, is a multi-commodity production-processing-marketing Projects which included soybean, vegetables, fruits and processing. The passages below echo her commitment toward providing food for their families: if any man is rich but shuts his to one who stands in need, The love of God is missing from his heart. if a man is rich and does not give help to one who stands in need, He only gives the poor man what was already his. The earth was made for all, not just for the rich. In 1987, Dr. Rivera became the first CLSU Vice President Research, Extension and Training. She was instrumental in the institutionalization of the Training Center when she became second CLARRDEC coordinator, she introduced the concept of extension management to CLARRDECs operation, which further strengthened the applied communication focus of CLARRDEC and gave equal importance to extension and research.

OPPORTUNITIES AND PROBLEMS

In implementing development projects and programs, she and her team have encountered problems, foremost of which are insufficient financial resources and human resource requirements of the project. Nevertheless, linkages with the government and non-government institutions; earning awards from prestigious institutions; identification of research gaps or researchable areas for further scientific

inquiry; publication of books and other printed outputs; and greater opportunities or career advancement. In 2003, the Philippine Council on Agriculture and Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and South East Asia Council for Graduate Education and Agriculture (SEARCA) included her as one of the 20th Century Outstanding Filipino women Research Managers, Administrators, and Scientists of the Philippines, at almost the same period Dr. Rivera becomes one of the biographies in the Americas Whos Who in the World recognizing her feast in the field of education, research, administration and rural development. Ever the creative person, profilic writer, and scholar, she has written books related developmentsoybean as Human Food-Philosophy of the Poor as First and Foremost (1995); modernization of the Central Luzon State University for Philippines (1997); with Dr. F. A. Batad; Kasaysayan ng Sentinaryong Kalaban. With R.Cruz and Z. Batad institutionalization of Agribusiness Entrepreneurship in Institutions Of Higher Learning, (1998) with Dr. Cabanilla and T. Aganon; Reengineering Academic Case Processes of College Teaching (2004), with J.A. Irabagon and C.C. Divina; Integrated Crop-Animal Systems in Rain fed Rice lands In The Philippines (2004) wwith M. Sombilla, P. Aviola, and G. Cataquiz (IRRI); Work Ethic (2005), with L.A. Londina and J. Poungngamchuen.

SUMMARY
Dr. Riveras significant contributions to the administration and implementation of rural projects are invaluable-unrecorded are the many lives she has touched, not only the rural people, but also her field workers, researchers and laborers with whom she worked; the books she has written are her footprints on the sands of time. She said that God gave her talents which she must multiply and shared with others who are less blessed; this is why she worked so hard. She wrote books which will serve as a legacy she can share to both young and old. Additionally, she wrote more than 30 published scientific popular articles which earned for her numerous awards and recognitions at the national and international levels. At the time this interview was conducted, when asked if she will write her autobiography, she said she has no plan. Instead she is looking forward to writing a book about her daughter Jet to show how to raise a beautiful child, her mother, as the epitome of Filipino Work Ethic, and her brother Amang, an outstanding virologist in the US who was recognized for his commercialization of FMD hog cholera and other animal disease control. She shares her lifes philosophy. Put God first in everything that you do. Living up to his way of life, Dr. Rivera is one soul who may be said to have reached the zenith of her potential in this part of the earth, and is journeying back on-to-God for serving Him best till now.

A Woman of Strength in Herstory

TITO J. DE LA CRUZ JR. ABSS2