Last week, I made a long trip to Maria Aurora town in Aurora Province by my lonesome to meet a group of farmer leaders from the different towns.
The farmers came from as far as Dilasag, the northernmost town near the boundary of Isabela Province, to meet with me for about two hours.
They eagerly shared with me their concerns most of which were similar to the complaints of other farmers in other parts of the country – low buying price of their produce, problem with credit and market access and the very high cost of farm inputs.
The Rice Tariffication Law, which brought down the prices of local palay to an all-time low of P12, is an emotional issue for Aurora farmers.
In fact, when one of the farmer leaders said that when he heard me say that I would work for the amendment of the RTL should I win a Senate seat, he wanted to go home to his town right away to start campaigning for me.
What was odd was no politician of national prominence had gone to the province since the start of the campaign.
When I checked on the voting population of Aurora, I found the answer.
Aurora Province only has a voting population of 145,000, which would just be the voting population of one barangay in Metro Manila and no national politician would be willing to take a six hour trip from the capital to campaign in a province with a very small voting population.
In spite of the fact that the province had been politically ignored by national politicians (except of course by their homegrown Senator, the late Ed Angara, and his son, Sonny, an incumbent Senator), it has a very low poverty incidence of less than 8%.
I promised the farmer leader from Dilasag that should I win as Senator, I would visit and spend the night in his town to talk to other farmers as well.
Aurora Province is rich and its proximity to Metro Manila, the big market, makes it an ideal area for Aquaculture and Agriculture production.
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