President Marcos will ramp up his efforts to ensure food security amid threats of El Niño as part of his administration's new brand of governance.
In front of hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who attended the kick-off of Bagong Pilipinas (new Philippines) rally in Manila on Sunday, the President laid out his plans to assure them of enough rice supply in the upcoming phenomenon.
He said the government would expand irrigable lands, increase farm support across the board for all crops, and incentivize urban gardening, including turning idle lands into vegetable plots.
He also said that the government "will not tolerate smuggled food that impoverishes our domestic producers and puts our consumers at risk" as well as address "trading and transport bottlenecks."
"Itinigil din natin ang [kotongan]. Ang pagkokotong sa daan at sa pantalan sapagkat ang tong ay nagiging presyong ipinapatong sa mga mamimili (We also stopped bribery because it is causing prices to shoot up in the market)," he said.
He also called on barangay officials to convert every piece of available land into urban gardens.
"The ultimate objective is to make food affordable to all, and one way to achieve this is to make it accessible to consumers," the President said.
Marcos made the pronouncement as he vowed that the Filipino farmers' produce "would not be drowned" amid threats of unpredictable weather conditions.
He said people should rather be drowned with support from the government.