A Department of Agriculture (DA) that is under the supervision of President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. can actually create a resilient Philippine food security, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion believed.
According to Concepcion, many of the country's micro, small, medium enterprisers (MSMEs) "are based in the agriculture sector," and that the next President, in fact, already "expressed his intention to focus on our country’s small entrepreneurs" when he was still campaigning.
"This would be a chance to help both our farmers and our MSMEs," Concepcion, Go Negosyo founder, said in a statement Monday.
Concepcion said DA is a "natural choice" for Marcos Jr., considering he also talked about continuing his father's, late president Ferdinand Marcos' projects in the sector.
"There are many programs that his father started that I believe can be revived and will redound to benefits for the country’s agriculture sector," he said.
"Masagana 99, the Food Terminal Inc. and the Kadiwa stores are only but a few of the projects that I believe can be revisited today," he added.
In fact, Concepcion said, Marcos Jr. told them during the campaign period that the upcoming President himself "felt the pandemic exposed the weaknesses not just of our agriculture sector, but our whole food supply chain."
Given Marcos' initial plans for agriculture, Concepcion expressed hope that country "will become more resilient and able to withstand future disruptions in our food supply system, such as that we experienced during the lockdowns and now with the Russia-Ukraine crisis."
On Monday, Marcos Jr. said he will head "at least for now" the DA as he believed "the problem is severe enough."
“At least until we can re-organize the Department of Agriculture in the way that will make it ready for the next years to come,” he also said.