Erap vows to make RP a rice-exporting country

from The Daily Tribune

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20100220hed6.html

Former President Joseph Estrada has assured farmers and environmental groups that if he becomes president again, he would make the Philippines a rice-exporting country.

“I will double rice production in Nueva Ecija by 2013 so that the Philippines will not only be self-sufficient in rice but also be able to export rice,” the standard-bearer of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino told farmers and the thousands of other supporters who greeted him for his campaign sortie through Nueva Ecija.

He added that an Estrada administration in 2010 will see the realization of the Philippines becoming a rice-producing and rice-exporting country.

“Food security through agricultural production is at the top of the Estrada Agenda for 2010,” Estrada said.

He will be activating the Agrikulturang Makamasa program again which turned agricultural growth around from negative 6 percent to positive 6 percent in just a little over one year.
Estrada was mobbed in Nueva Ecija by thousands of Novo Ecijanos who continue to support him, recalling that Estrada has been proved to be committed to uplifting the plight of poor farmers.

Estrada, who is running for president, toured Nueva Ecija visiting the towns of Cabiao, Gapan, Talavera, Sta. Rosa and San Isidro with his running mate Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay and reelectionist Sen. Jinggoy Estrada.

An environmental group, for its part, vowed to support Estrada’s candidacy.

“We are supporting President Joseph “Erap” Estrada because if he is president we can be sure that our farmers and our rural lands will be taken care of. We can be sure that our fields will be free from drought,” the Philippine Green Republic Party (PGRP) said.

PGRP is an environmental organization based in Nueva Ecija that boasts of a strong following of multi-sectoral groups particularly in the Central Luzon area. It is also a member of Global Greens, a worldwide network of parties with a strong environmental agenda.

PGRP decided to support Estrada because of his agenda of making agricultural development his government’s top priority.

“Nueva Ecija is the country’s top producer of rice. We know that President Estrada can make our farm output three times better with his agricultural policies and make our country a rice exporter instead of a rice importer,” GRP leader Fel Pajarillo, in a statement, said.

“The other presidential candidates cannot do anything for agriculture,” Pajarillo said, recounting the Hacienda Luisita case of presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino and the complaints made this week by farmers in Bulacan that presidential candidate Sen. Manny Villar used their land to secure a loan with dubious documents.

“Only Erap has a strong and sincere agenda to uplift the plight of Filipino farmers nationwide.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said neither of the two frontrunners in the presidential race this year can lay claim on Iloilo province, which commands the most number of votes among the so-called Panay Islands.

Nacionalista Party (NP) standard-bearer Villar boasts of his Ilonggo roots, while Liberal Party’s (LP) presidential bet Sen. Benigno Aquino has the full backing of his party stalwarts who come the province such as former Sen. Franklin Drilon and vice presidential candidate Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II who is from the nearby Capiz.

Santiago noted that their inability to speak the native tongue could be a liability for them.

Iloilo province, like most highly-urbanized areas, has always been on the side of the political opposition.

“In this case there will be a very strong sense of ‘Cory’ (the late President Corazon Aquino) sympathy but then again if you juxtaposed that to the fact that Villar himself comes from an Ilonggo father, they might become even and none of the other candidates in the other political parties speak Ilonggo. That’s their problem. It’s very hard to claim to be an ilonggo and not be able to speak the dialect,” the senator pointed out.

Senator Aquino, for his part. vowed to give attention to public healthcare system and provide everyone access to Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) cards and its services.

“We will go beyond ensuring that each Filipino has a PhilHealth card. Universal Health Care should mean that every PhilHealth cardholder will get not merely the card; but more important, the essential health services, basic medicines and appropriate quality health cards,” Aquino told 3,000 doctors at the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians (PAFP) Universal Health Care Forum at the Philippine International Convention Center, Pasay City. Angie M. Rosales and PNA