Vice presidential candidate and Senator Francis Pangilinan laid out his plans to help what he described as a "neglected" sector of agriculture, which includes increasing the budget for the industry.
According to Pangilinan, one of the reasons why he ran as vice president is to help the agriculture sector, which he said has been part of his advocacy for years.
"It's about time na 'yung neglected na agriculture sector ay bigyan talaga ng importansya, kaya rin 'yan isang dahilan kung bakit tayo tumakbo, dahil tayo lamang ang kandidato sa pagka bise presidente na mahigit sampung taon na isinusulong ang adbokasiya ng agriculture," he told DZRH in an interview.
(It’s about that time when we give importance to the neglected agriculture sector. This is one of the reasons why I’m running, because I am the only candidate for vice president who has been pushing the advocacy of agriculture for more than 10 years.)
He said that to help the country's agriculture industry, the government should double its budget the way neighboring Southeast Asian nations are doing.
"Ang solusyon diyan number one dapat talaga ma-increase ang agri budget," he said. "Talagang kulang na kulang ang agri budget, 'yan ang uunahin natin, we will push for the minimum the doubling ng agri budget."
(The solution there, number one, is to increase the agri budget. The agri budget is really lacking, so we will prioritize that, we will push for the minimum doubling of the agri budget.)
"We will put in place a system na dapat direktang nakikinabang ang magsasaka at mangingisda para ma-increase ang kanilang kita, ma-increase ang kanilang yield," he said.
(We will put in place a system that directly benefits farmers and fisherfolk to increase their income, to hike their yield.)
"Dahil bakit kulang ang suplay ng pagkain? Dahil kulang ang suporta sa magsasaka," he added.
(Because why do we have a shortage of food? Because the support for farmers is lacking.)
Irrigation systems
In addition to doubling the budget, Pangilinan also said he will put up irrigation systems to help farmers.
"Irrigation is critical and therefore we will have to put more money into irrigation systems," he said.
The vice-presidential candidate cited his experience as National Irrigation Administration chairman, where he said they had put up P30-billion worth of agriculture and irrigation projects that were approved.
"Ang kritikal diyan is implementation, and that requires leadership, number one, and of course, requires leadership na malinis at tapat para hindi nauuwi sa corruption itong pondo para sa irigasyon."
(The critical part is implementation, and that requires leadership, number one, and of course, requires leadership that is clean and honest so the funds for irrigation will not fall to corruption.)
