KABUGAO, Apayao—Gov. Elias C. Bulut Jr. urged employees of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Apayao to come out of their offices and advocate the programs and projects of their agencies to improve the productivity of farmers here and preserve and protect the environment.
Speaking during the launching of the Elias K. Bulut barangay in this municipality, the governor said DA and DENR employees must be in the field teaching the farmers how to improve their productivity, to set an example in cultivating agricultural crops and spearheading environmental preservation and protection programs “to convince people to believe in the programs of government.”
“We are saddened to learn that DA and DENR officers just confine themselves to their offices, which should not be the considering they are supposed to be out there teaching our farmers how to improve their productivity by setting examples,” Bulut stressed.
“For those in the DENR offices, they must go out in the open and plant trees or conduct an inventory of old trees that need to be replaced, facilitate the trees being cut, and replace them with new ones, to sustain our efforts to preserve and protect the environment.”
He said Apayao has sufficient land area that could be developed into plantations or demo farms through the assistance of DA workers in the province, where farmers could learn the latest farming techniques to increase their production.
Bulut said members of the New People’s Army operating in the province should also lay down their arms and go back to the mainstream society, because the provincial government “is ready to provide them sustainable sources of income” as forest guards to help maintain the identity of the province as “the last frontier of nature in the north.”
For the DENR workers, the governor suggested they should spearhead environmental preservation and protection programs by involving the youth in reforestation activities, while teaching them how to get rid of old tress and replace them with new ones.
Bulut expressed confidence the agency employees will listen to his advice, saying there must be “visible improvements” on how they handle the implementation of their programs and projects in the coming days “so that the people of the province will feel their presence.”
He said the presence of employees of national government agencies in the province “is a welcome development” as the provincial government will have easier access to their programs and projects, but there is a need for these workers “to be aggressive in cascading to the grassroots level their programs and projects that are intended to improve the living condition of people in the countryside.”