The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) welcomes and fully supports the Balik Probinsya Program as proposed by Senator Christopher Lawrence Go.
This program is long overdue and has been advocated by the Chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) even when he was still Governor of North Cotabato and later Secretary of Agriculture.
Depopulating the Urban Centers of informal settlers who trooped to the big cities to find jobs and income opportunities will definitely resolve so many social and poverty issues.
On the other hand, informal urban dwellers who will agree to go back to their home provinces will definitely result in sufficient manpower requirements to undertake food production and rural development activities.
The proper groundwork, however, needs to be undertaken before the mass reverse migration to the rural areas commences.
There must be an in-depth study on where they should be resettled and what income-earning opportunities are provided to them when they return home.
MinDA commits to help Sen. Go in crafting the “Balik Probinsya” Program for Mindanao taking into consideration lessons from previous attempts to send back to their home provinces the urban informal settlers.
For example, previous attempts only involved giving urban informal settlers money for their fare back home without any viable program on how they could be reintegrated into a rural setting.
The program, as expected, resulted in a massive failure with the same families returning back to the big cities after they have exhausted the financial incentives.
Today, with the announced support of President Rody Duterte to the program, MinDA staff will start working on a rural reintegration and income generation program to support the “Balik Probinsya” Program as proposed by Senator Go.
(Photos and images were downloaded from public websites)
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