The governor is not a patient man, but development has come slowly to Bukidnon nonetheless.

CNN: INSIDE STORY: PHILIPPINES

His son, made military governor in 1901, came from Cebu to Bukidnon to "pacify the area and establish civilization, " says the governor.

CNN: INSIDE STORY: PHILIPPINES

Nowhere more so than in the province of Bukidnon, where the climate is particularly inviting and where the governor estimates that some 75% of the population are settlers.

CNN: INSIDE STORY: PHILIPPINES

The Mapalad farmers (as they are known) are up against just about everybody: the owner of the estate, the courts, the six-term provincial governor of Bukidnon, the town mayor, even the barangay captain.

CNN: INSIDE STORY: PROMISED LAND

In Bukidnon, one family did: the Fortiches.

CNN: INSIDE STORY: PHILIPPINES

The governor says he knows how to develop Bukidnon, thank you very much, and it isn't by dividing estates into parcels that he believes can't be farmed efficiently or by distributing land to laborers who he believes can't manage it properly.

CNN: INSIDE STORY: PHILIPPINES