All foreign travels are temporarily suspended.
This is one of the first directives of Secretary Manny Piñol during the regular Monday morning ceremony participated by all DA Central Office employees on January 8, 2018.
The agri chief announced that President Duterte stressed the DA should focus first on sustaining sufficiency of basic commodities for the Filipino people before exporting food stuffs to other countries.
“As such, we will choose the travels abroad that we will take and the invitations that we will accept. This is to assure that it will greatly benefit the Department and the national agriculture scene of the country,” Piñol said.
“In line with this, I have instructed Undersecretary Fred Serrano to create and head a committee that will review all upcoming international trips,” he said.
Piñol further stressed the wisdom in the observation of the President as to why “we are proposing to bring out our products to the international markets when there are 105 millions of mouth to feed here in the country.”
The Secretary mentioned that he has declined the invitation of the Indian government to attend a meeting of Agriculture Ministers in India this January 16th.
In his message, the agri chief announced that the DA will refocus programs to sustain the production of commodities that is in-demand locally.
Returning from a trip in Zamboanga and Lanao del Norte, which were affected by twin-typhoons Vinta and Urduja in late 2017, Piñol stressed that there is a need to review production management systems to address and prevent grave impacts of natural calamities.
“I will present to the president today a risk assessment of production areas nationwide and propose that the DA, and the Departments of Local Government and Environment and Natural Resources undertake a collaborative project,” he said.
“The local government units will implement the project and we will work closely with DENR to protect our watershed areas,” Piñol added.
Before ending his message, the Secretary thanked all the employees for their contribution in the success of the Department.
“I am proud of what the DA has become, and how you were able to see the way I see things. Pres. Duterte refers to me as his star player, but this is so because you are all part of the team and I appreciate all your hard work and service,” Piñol said.
“Thank you for your great service to the Filipino,” he ended. ### (odarodriguez/DA-AFID)
