Awakening Of Sleeping Giant! 1.34-M-Hectare Samar Island Looms As Major Food Producer

Two weeks ago, I was in Jiabong, Western Samar with my Catbalogan City-based friend and supporter, Raul Reyes, and I was endlessly amazed by the abundance of sea products sold along the side of the national highway.

Samar Island, composed of three provinces – Western, Northern and Eastern Samar, with a land area of 1.34-M is the country’s third biggest island and a potential major food production area.

Ironically, for ages prior to the Presidency of Rodrigo Duterte and before the implementation of the rural development program SAAD by the Department of Agriculture, the island had one of the highest poverty rates in the whole country.

Even before I was appointed Agriculture Secretary, Samar had been an enigma to me and was always in my mind as a rural development advocate.

In 2016, after I introduced the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) to the Department of Agriculture as a Rural Development Strategy which I designed when I was Governor of North Cotabato, I had the whole island of Samar prioritized as one of the target areas.

Three years later, the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) acknowledged that the SAAD Program greatly reduced the poverty level in the whole island by as much as 10 to 15% in the three provinces.

To sustain the poverty alleviation program, however, I saw the need to improve the island’s productivity to provide income opportunities and jobs for its people.

So, I designed another program which was called Samar Integrated Rural Development Program because I saw the potentials of the island for agricultural production.

The idea was to establish an agency, similar to the Laguna Lake Development Authority, which would coordinate with the LGUs all development efforts but independent of the local political alignments.

The SIRDP was submitted for funding in the 2019 proposed programs of the DA but unfortunately, it was not considered.

In spite of this, I am not giving up hope because I believe that God will find a way to lift up Samar and realize the island’s full potentials as a major food production area of the country.

With God’s grace, the SIRDP, which already has a blueprint, could be established through legislation and make it not just an agricultural productivity program but a comprehensive Rural Development Template.

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!

#KungGustoMaramingParaan!

(Video of Jiabong’s Seafood Avenue was taken by the media team of the Biyaheng Senado ni Manny Piñol)