Partido Reporma standard-bearer Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson and running mate Senate President Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto III offered to agriculture industry workers in Cagayan Valley region this week their solid programs for the farmers and fisherfolk nationwide to lift the sector out of the pandemic slump.
In a town hall forum held at the Tuguegarao City leg of their campaign, Tuesday morning, Lacson and Sotto assured voters only their tandem has the concrete, implementable policy agenda towards improving the living and working conditions of our local food producers.
The vice-presidential candidate said he and Lacson are deliberately avoiding using ‘motherhood statements’ in their national campaign to set themselves apart from their political rivals who are only good at making promises to the electorate without explaining how to fulfill them.
As they previously announced in their earlier visits to other provinces, the presidential duo plans to buy 50 percent of the agricultural output of farmers and fishermen at their own price, so they would not be exploited by enterprising middlemen who are jacking up prices once the products hit the market.
Lacson and Sotto’s plans for agriculture were largely inspired by their ally, Partido Reporma secretary-general and Davao del Norte Governor Edwin Jubahib, whose policy of buying 100 percent of their farmers’ produce in the province led to drastic improvement in their economic situation.
In a separate town hall meeting held in Sanchez Mira, Tuesday afternoon, Lacson expressed his commitment to end the import-driven mentality of the Department of Agriculture under their watch to avert potential harvest and income losses of our farmers and fisherfolk.
Addressing voters from Tuguegarao City in Cagayan province, Lacson also said he already found the best antidote to deliver the country from inept, corrupt, and undisciplined public officials and employees, and that is by reviving his anti-graft policies when he led the Philippine National Police (PNP).
He stressed that the policemen stopped their ‘kotong’ (bribe-seeking) activities.
“Why? Because they had no idea if the people they were trying to extort would arrest them,” said Lacson.
“Now, we will scale that up to the national government—national government bureaucracy,” he added.
The former PNP chief said planting spies or undercover agents among cops to catch scalawags in their ranks became one of his claims to fame when he served as Chief PNP from 1999 to 2001.
Lacson said it was so effective that he managed to turn the organization around and restore public trust in it in just four months.
“We will just replicate that (policy) so that people in government would hesitate, they would think that maybe the person they are making
transactions with might be planted and would apprehend them. One day, you know, that culture (of corruption) will end and our government bureaucracy will be good,” he said. With Jessica Bacud and Macon Ramos-Araneta