At about midnight of June 23, while we were on the way to Davao City from Surigao del Norte where top Department of Agriculture and Fisheries officials launched a unique easy access credit program to boost production and address poverty in the rural areas, my brother and executive assistant, Bong, showed me a Facebook post of a woman employee who complained that the 119th Foundation Celebration was very sad because there was not one top official of the department left to share the day with the employees at Central Office and hear mass.
She said that we should have been in Quezon City to share the moment with the rank and file DAF employees and insinuated that we did not really care about the workers of the department.
This is an open letter to respond to the post but I will not identify her so as not to embarrass her.
“Dear DAF worker,
“I saw your post last night where you complained that the Anniversary Celebration of the department was not as happy as it used to be because the top officials were out and you were left alone to hear mass and say prayers.
“I fully understand where you are coming from. All these years, workers in Department were made to feel that the anniversary celebration is a time to party, pat each other’s back, hand out certificates of appreciation for a job well done and partake of lavish preparations using government funds.
“Things have changed, my dear.
“Maybe you failed to read a memorandum I issued long before the 119th Foundation Anniversary where I said that under the leadership of President Rody Duterte, there will be no cakes, balloons and celebrations on our Foundation Week.
“In fact, I specifically stated that we should do outreach work during the week to mark our Foundation Anniversary.
“Which was what we actually did, except for those who are assigned to office work.
“On Monday, we were in Los Baños, Laguna to seed the Laguna Lake with 5-million fingerlings marking the launching of Project BASIL which aims to repopulate our lakes, rivers and creeks with fish, elvers and fresh water shrimps to make food accessible to the people.
“On Tuesday, we were in Bataan to launch a cold storage and ice plant for farmers and fisher folks and to conduct a farmers forum.
“On Wednesday, we were in Cebu City to help the 25 mayors and other officials of Zamboanga del Norte, one of the poorest provinces in the country, draft a 5-year Road Map for Development to reduce poverty in the province from 56% to 30% at the end of the term of President Duterte.
“On Thursday, we were in Surigao City to meet with hundreds of farmers and fisher folks who, for the first time, had the opportunity of airing and sharing their woes and dreams to the top officials of our Department.
“And finally, yesterday, Friday, the 119th Anniversary of our Department, we launched in Malimono, Surigao del Nortr the Production Loan Easy Access (PLEA) program which will allow poor farmers and fisher folks access to credit without the required collateral and high interest rates.
“The PLEA is expected to boost production of farmers and fisher folks as it will provide them the needed capitalisation, wean our farmers and fisher folks from their dependency on subsidy from government and finally, contribute to President Duterte’s goal of reducing national poverty from 26% to only 15% at the end of his term.
“The PLEA Program is expected to change things in the countryside and sustain agriculture and fisheries sector growth which registered 5.28% in the First Quarter.
“I can understand your loneliness. You were used to the celebration that was absent this week.
“You griped that we should have spent the day with you our workers in the Department and even questioned why so many of us went to Malimono.
“My dear, for so long people in government had this mistaken notion that we are more important than the people we are supposed to serve and that our little celebration should be given priority over our mission and mandate of producing food for the Filipinos.
“Please remember this: the Department of Agriculture was not created for us officials and employees.
“It was established in 1898 to serve the needs of farmers and fishermen so they could produce food for the country.
“We, the officials and employees, are just instruments in achieving the goals of the Department. We are not the Department of Agriculture.
“We will come and go. I will probably serve until 2022 as Secretary and you will probably retire 20 years from now.
“Long after we are gone and forgotten, the Department will still be there and will still be involved in the mission to help farmers and fisher folks produce food for our country.
“As workers of government we get our salaries, which may not really be that much but certainly enough to send our children to school.
“We have bonuses, health benefits and retirement benefits.
“The farmers and fishermen have none of those. All that they need is our support and service and we are paid to do just that.
“Check our accounting records and you will find out that we actually spend more for PS and your trainings that we do for concrete programs for farmers and fisher folks.
“The Department of Agriculture is an institution whose raison d’être is to support and help our farmers and fisher folks so that they could produce food for the country.
“This week when we celebrated our 119th Foundation Anniversary I wanted you to understand that this time around it should be all about them, not us.
“Please understand this because if you cannot, if you feel that the Department should focus its attention more on what would make the employees happy rather than how to support our farmers and fishermen, then I believe you are in the wrong line of work.
“We belong to the public service sector not the mutual admiration society, remember that.”
Sincerely,
Sec. Manny
(Photos of the week long celebration by Mayette Tudlas, Ardee Tompong and Alan Jay Jaca, DA OSEC, DA AFID)
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