Solon Juan C. Ponce Enrile Jr., son of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile visited Dumaguete City. Mayor Manuel “Chiquiting” Sagarbarria honored his visit with a sumptuous lunch and a press conference attended by all media practitioners in the City.
Also present were staff of Jack Enrile, Vice-Mayor Allan Gel Cordova, City Councilor Erwin Macias, and City Administrator William Ablong.
In his statement, Jack Enrile said he had been touring around 35 provinces in three months, including Negros Oriental for a consultation of House Bill no. 4626 known as an act providing for a system of determining the minimum food requirements of Filipinos, reorganizing the National Food Authority, establishing the National Strategic Food Supply, and reserved corporation and for other purposes.
It is the intention of this Bill to ensure food production and food security in the entire Philippines.
The measure is based on the principle of food sovereignty, which is the “right of peoples, communities, and countries to define their own agricultural, labor, fishing, food and land policies, which means that all people have the right to safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food and to food producing resources and the ability to sustain themselves and their societies’”.
Food security, on the other hand, refers to the “the availability of food and ones access to it. A household is considered food-secure when its occupants do not live in hunger of fear of starvation.
Right after the presscon, the group proceeded to Bethel Guest House for a consultation with about 60 farmers in Dumaguete City with Mayor Sagarbarria, and City Admin Ablong.
It is hoped that after Jack Enrile’s visit to Dumaguete, our City’s food production program can be intensified specifically now that a land tractor was received, and is now parked at the City Agriculture Office, ready to plow to about 60 hectares of agricultural lots producing corn, vegetables, root crops and fruits.
Mayor Chiquiting Sagarbarria is optimistic that the City’s agriculture produce would be more than enough to feed all Dumaguetenos. He said we could even extend our market to include the neighboring other cities and provinces.
Enrile in Dumaguete
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