Rizal, Laguna—Former Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go has vowed to promote and protect the welfare of farmers in a visit to this town on Sunday.
Among others, Go said the government could provide pension for farmers in their retirement, which could be funded by the tariffs collected from imported agricultural products.
“The government should have funds for the pension of farmers that can no longer work owing to old age,” Go said at the New Civic Center of Barangay Pauli II at the 100th founding anniversary celebration of this town.
Go, a candidate for senator in the 2019 elections, vowed to uplift the lives of the farmers and ensure food security in the stores that the Department of Agriculture opened last year.
“I will help the government establish TienDA Malasakit Stores in different parts of the country,” Go said. “Through these stores, farmers can apply for scholarship grants for their children.”
“I’d like to provide farmers easy access to farm inputs, such as machinery, fertilizers, seeds, irrigation, and low-interest credit. I’d also like to provide our farmers with free business and skills training,” he added.
Go told the people that the programs he enumerated will not remain so. “Like President Duterte, I’m a man of action,” he said, citing the infrastructure projects of the administration’s Build Build Build program as proof.
Go said it is important to instill in Filipino youth that being part of the agriculture sector is an honorable and promising source of livelihood.
“As President Duterte always says, it is by having a genuine concern for our kababayans that we can truly show the goodness of our character, just like our national hero Jose Rizal,” he added.
Meanwhile, Go announced the opening of 18 Malasakit Centers in Laguna province in about a couple of months.
Go hit on the idea of the center from his almost two decades of experience attending to the people who sought medical assistance from then-Davao Mayor Duterte.
A Malasakit Center is a one-stop shop housing all concerned government agencies under one roof to make it easier and faster for indigent and disadvantaged patients to avail of the government’s medical and financial assistance.