IT WAS in the seventies, Ferdinand Marcos was president and Blas F. Ople was Labor Minister. Ka Blas, as friends and colleagues called him, was a native of Hagonoy, Bulacan. In his youth, he was a fisherman and when he had enough brawn in his tall frame, he was a stevedore in those piers in the North Harbor in Manila. He never finished college but he had an exceptional intellect that he was even elected president of the International Labor Organization (ILO). It was during his watch as secretary of labor that he opened the Middle East labor market. From those days forward the country’s economy was kept afloat by the dollar remittances of the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), who the government called modern-day heroes.
We should ask now the government, how do you treat these "modern-day heroes" in this time of pandemic? Many returned home and more are coming since many lost their jobs abroad. We can ask how government will react and cope up with the situation. There must be an immediate measure. Maybe a comprehensive plan for these displaced workers. I have my two cents worth idea, so to speak, on how government can address the problem in a short and long term. AGRICULTURAL VENTURES is the answer.
I remember a discussion in one of the forums of the Capampangan Media Inc. (CAMI) wherein the topic centered on agricultural enterprises. It is one topic that generated much argument and that was the seeming lack of a rational program of the Duterte government on agriculture. One member was arguing that government should focus more on alleviation programs for the poor via agriculture and not on dole-outs. As it was reported the government allocated billions for unconditional cash transfer for the poor, a dole out for around 10 million families. (It is now being continued in this pandemic and it is locally termed as ayuda.)
"Why always dole out? Government could have channeled the billions to productive use like constructing more farm to markets roads, not farm to pocket roads, one of us quipped. Take notice when you are driving up north the farms on the left and right of SCTEx and NLEx there is not single farm machinery which government could have bought and distributed to farmers via cooperatives." It’s about time that tools for machine farmings be made available because the farmers’ sons are now mostly enrolled in state colleges. They seem to dislike farming, unlike their fathers in the early years. The returning OFWs can now be tapped on agricultural ventures complimented by stimulus packages, instead of social amelioration packages AKA ayuda.
"Well the bottom line you don’t give people fish but teach them how to fish’, one of them reporters pointed out. Correctly said. As the saying goes, ‘ you give man a fish, he will eat that day but teach him how to fish, he will eat forever."
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NOTES. Kudos to Bacolor Mayor Diman Datu. His salaries since he started his tenure totaling to a whopping one million pesos were donated to needy recipients. BTW. He celebrated his birthday on August 24. Mabuhay ka Mayor Diman... More friends celebrated their birthdays this August minus the parties that were there before coronavirus. Former Capas Mayor TJ Rodriguez and infra contractor JP Bautista August 19, businessman Willie Martinez August 26 and Renato "Atoy" Dela Cruz, August 27... Watch my Trending Max show on next Wednesday night 9 p.m. and you’ll discover further First District Congressman Carmelo Jonjon Lazatin Jr... Hello to Congressmen Mikey Macapagal Arroyo and Rimpy Bondoc. The two are the other working representatives who never failed their constituents in extending help. Hindi sila maka sarili.