- MITCH M. LIPA
“I have decided to run for senator because I have not seen any other candidate whose understanding of the status of the Philippine agriculture is deeper than mine,” former Agriculture secretary Manny Piñol said Nov. 24.
“I stand with concrete visions for agriculture, particularly for the region,” he told the media during his visit to Negros Occidental to distribute fruit trees and bamboos as part of his campaign advocacy.
He said he is trying to introduce a new reforestation program that emphasizes on environmental protection but will also focus on income generation for people planting bamboos and fruit trees.
He said he is sharing this advocacy by distributing mother trees of bamboos and other fruit trees to different local government units.
Piñol said he has not seen candidates who have true concern for agriculture, from its present status and the problems in the future. He said he cannot allow another six years of anti-agriculture policies, with emphasis on importation and dependence on foreign sources, including the proposal to liberalize the sugar industry that, he said, will do an irreversible damage to agriculture in the future.
Piñol added that he told the President when they were in Sagay City that the plan of the economic managers to liberalize the sugar industry would actually do more damage than good.
He added that the increase in the prices of fertilizer is a phenomenon that all countries are facing.
He also supports the revival of the Negros One Island Region, adding that when he was the DA secretary, he already appointed a director and personnel who will focus on the concerns of the NIR.
Piñol is running under the Nationalist Peoples Coalition, and is a senatorial candidate of presidential bet Panfilo Lacson and vice presidential aspirant Vicente Sotto.
He was endorsed by Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson at the Negros Residences because of his concern for the agriculture sector, and his understanding of the sugar industry. — MML
