Salt

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte says local government units (LGUs) will soon have to put up their own respectives task forces to regularly survey existing salt farming and processing enterprises. 

Villafuerte said such task forces--provided for under the newly-signed Republic Act (RA) No. 11985 or the Philippine Industry Salt Development Act--are designed to help the national government identify areas appropriate for salt production in the LGU's respective localities. 

The veteran congressman further described it as a major role in “the fresh government effort to revitalize this moribund industry, in a bid to bail out its farmers, reverse anemic production and eventually turn this nutrient into an export earner". 

RA No.11985 mandates LGUs to put up their own Salt Industry Development Task Forces (or simply "Salt Task Forces") that shall regularly conduct a survey of existing salt farms and salt processing enterprises within their areas, “in support of the proposed five-year masterplan to expand areas devoted to salt-making,  boost domestic salt output, promote investments in this sector and market Philippine products made from this essential nutrient". 

Villafuerte added that as per the law, the LGUs shall identify appropriate areas for local salt production with the help of five agencies. 

These agencies are the Department of Agriculture (DA)’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and its National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and Department of Science and Technology (DOST), through its regional offices. 

The Bicolano said the BFAR and DENR, through its appropriate bureaus and its attached agency, the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA), are directed to map out, identify, and designate public lands, including portions of municipal waters, as salt production areas. 

Cognizant of the key role that LGUs have in the Marcos administration’s program to revive the dying salt industry, Villafuerte said that three LGU organizations are to be represented in the multisectoral Philippine Salt Industry Development Council (Salt Council), to which RA No. 11985 has assigned the job of crafting the five-year masterplan for the salt industry. 

This is meant to accelerate this sector’s modernization and industrialization. 

Under the law, three of the members of this would-be Salt Council shall come from the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), League of Cities of the Philippines LCP, and League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) representing salt-producing areas.  

He notes that the supervision of public lands to be identified by the LGUs and the concerned government agencies as suitable for salt production is transferred by the law from the DENR to the BFAR within 90 days from RA No.11985’s effectivity. 

The DENR shall “transfer public lands mapped out, identified, and designated as suitable for salt production under its administrative jurisdiction to BFAR,” the law states. 

Consistent with the five-year plan, Villafuerte said the BFAR, in coordination with LGUs and resident salt producers, shall identify priority locations of roads linking the salt farms to the market, which shall be known as “Daan Asinan” or salt roads.