Continuity Key To Agricultural Progress!

Arriving at the Laguindingan Airport from Manila early yesterday morning en route to Bukidnon, a group of Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources (BFAR) workers approached me for a group photo.
The BFAR Technical Team told me they were tasked by Sec. Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. to help fishermen of Northern Mindanao build 1,000 fiberglass fishing boats.
The 1,000 fiberglass fishing boats, the group’s team leader said, was a commitment of Pres. Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to the fishermen during his visit to the area.
The building of the fiberglass fishing boats by the fishermen themselves, supervised by BFAR, is part of the DA/BFAR FB Pagbabago Program which started when I was Secretary of Agriculture and continued by the new administration.
By empowering the fishermen to build their own fishing boats, they were able to design fishing boats which could adapt to the conditions in their fishing grounds.
This was a lesson I learned in the early stages of the fiberglass fishing boat program when DA/BFAR distributed ready-made boats.
The fishermen of Surigao del Norte and Sur rejected the ready-made boats saying the design could not withstand the strong waves of the Pacific Ocean.
“Malukot nan bayod,” they told me in Camayo. (Those boats will be crumpled by the waves.)
So, under the FB Pagbabago Program, fishermen in specific fishing grounds designed and built their own boats using materials and funding provided by DA BFAR.
I am proud and happy that this innovative program, which is actually one of the many which I personally conceptualized and designed, was adapted and continued by this administration.
Continuity of good programs is key to agricultural progress and prosperity.
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!