INTRODUCTION
Maayong aga sa inyong tanan.

Thank you for your gracious welcome.

I take this opportunity to express my admiration for the resolve and strength of the people of Iloilo, and offer my thanks for their support to the causes of this administration.

I also wish to acknowledge the efforts of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in making this year’s farmers and fisherfolk’s month a fruitful experience for all of us.

This year’s celebration is unique, because for the first time, the Department of Agriculture, rather than doing it at its main office in Quezon City, rightly decided to come to the countryside to open the celebration of Farmers and Fisherfolk’s Month.

This means that the DA’s commitment to countryside development has touched a higher plane, which is but fitting and essential.

This year’s theme, “Unlad Ani: Haligi ng “Pilipinas 2000!!!”, attunes us to the hope and fervor of a brighter tomorrow. It also inspires us to buckle down to work, and to focus our attention and combined energies on distinct goals that we may accomplish our tasks and claim our rightful place among the community of progressive and industrialized nations.
MAY: AGRICULTURE MONTH
The month of May has always been a month of festivities, color, pageantry and celebrations for us Filipinos. It is also the time to give thanks to San Isidro Labrador, the patron saint of farmers and fishermen.

That is why the people in the agricultural sector and all of us who benefit from their endeavors hold the month of May as an occasion for celebration and thanksgiving. It is also a time to make an honest assessment of what needs to be done.

For us in government, may is the perfect time to emphasize our advocacy for agri-industrial development as a viable means to achieve self-sufficiency and national growth.
SELF-RELIANCE AND PEOPLE EMPOWERMENT
The empowerment of the Filipino is the spirit behind “Philippines 2000!!!”! Our task is to empower the small farmers and fisherfolk. We must provide them with a climate that encourages the actualization of their productive potentials.

People empowerment is not only a goal but also the lifeblood of our country and its future, and this administration is fully committed to it.

This agri-fishery fair, which we open today, is a sterling example of what a group of people committed to the same cause of national development can easily achieve.

Let me then take this opportunity to acknowledge the valiant efforts of the members of the Kabisig steering committee — P.A. Rhett Pelaez, Secretary Frank Drilon, Governor Bren Guiao, Engineer Ramon Hechanova, Administrator Rodolfo Gamboa and Attorney Corazon Tirol — and all RDC members and local officials. This event is truly something region vi can be proud of.
BLUEPRINT FOR PROGRESS
The tenets of the Kabisig People’s Movement are embodied in the Philippine Medium-Term Development Plan (MTPDP).

The plan sets the goals and strategies that will transform the Philippines by 1998 into a politically stable, economically progressive and socially cohesive nation, and bring to our people a better quality of life.

For its part, the Department of Agriculture (D.A.) drafted the medium-term agricultural development plan which specifically focuses on what the agricultural sector must do to participate in our march towards development.
PANAY: A SHOWCASE
FOR AGRICULTURE
Iloilo is among our identified priority areas for agriculture. Through teamwork, determination and a driving commitment to excellence, this area is now becoming a showcase for modernized agriculture.

One of the many significant achievements in Panay is the elevation of the Guimaras Experimental Station into a National Mango Research and Development Center.

After 22 years of hard work and dedicated commitment to excellence, the National Mango Research and Development Center (NMRDC) has become the only research center of its kind in Southeast Asia and the world.

The center has just finished an exhaustive survey of Guimaras Mango, undertaken in coordination with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Results thereof have effected the lifting of the quarantine barrier, thus allowing our mangoes to enter the U.S. market on the basis that Guimaras is now a weevil-free area.

Another showcase of partnership and success here in Iloilo is the slated expansion program of Vitarich valued at p300 million. The expansion will include the establishment of two feedmills, a dressing plant and a hatchery. Once operational, the feedmill can produce some 100,000 fifty-kilo bags of poultry, livestock and aqua feed monthly.
To further push forward Iloilo’s agricultural progress, I have instructed the D.A. through the National Agriculture and Fishery Council to release an initial p1.2 million to fund seven lead projects in Region VI.

To sustain the momentum of Guimaras as a developing agricultural showcase, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is funding four major programs worth p3 million.

These programs will help enhance the scientific knowhow of Region VI.

Another good news is that yesterday, the National Food Authority’s (NFA) Iloilo thermal plant was recommissioned. This rice husk-fed steampower plant is expected to generate an average of 1,000 kilowatts per hour. The power plant will augment the increasing energy demands of the province.
As for our fisheries sector here in Region VI, I am pleased to learn that the regional task force for the Tinagong Dagat Development has already identified the illegal fishponds that cause the floodings in Pontevedra in Capiz.

Owners of these illegal fishponds have voluntarily agreed to demolish these obstructions. They have until May 30 to do this. In line with our objective to safeguard our water resources, we are organizing fishery law enforcer officers whose task is to assist municipalities in Region VI revise or amend their fisheries ordinances.

Meanwhile, the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development center or SEAFDEC, which is under the department of agriculture, is being enhanced as the premier center for research, training and information dissemination on aquaculture technology.

Aside from its main station at Tigbauan, Iloilo, SEAFDEC also maintains two substations, the Binangonan Freshwater Substation in Rizal Province and the Igang Marine Substation at Igang, Nueva Valencia, Guimaras.
AGRICULTURE: THE FINAL GROWTH FRONTIER
Agriculture plays a crucial role in our quest for “Philippines 2000!!!”. Forty-eight percent of our people depend on the generosity of our lands and waters for their livelihood. Half of our people live in the nurturing fields of the countryside.

Agriculture represents the biggest employer of our national labor force. When translated in real terms, this is powerful workforce, which when tapped to its full potential, can move us faster towards our vision of more modernized agriculture and industrialization by the turn of the century.

Agriculture is the final frontier that leads to national growth. It is therefore imperative that we explore agriculture’s’ fullest potentials. We must seek to improve our farming methods for greater productivity.

Only then can we sustain our country’s development.

In this sense, we can truly say that agriculture comprises the backbone of our country’s progress. To realize industrialization, we must create a strong agricultural base that will adequately support and sustain industrialization.

Ang agrikultura ay isang matibay na haligi sa pag-unlad ng Pilipinas. Kaya’t nararapat lamang na pahalagahan ang ating mga magsasaka at mangingisda at bigyang pansin natin ang kanilang mga hinaing at pangangailangan.
Iisa lamang ang pangarap nating lahat — ang bumuti ang kabuhayan ng bawat Pilipino. At tanging sa ating mga kamay nakasalalay ang katuparan ng pangarap na ito.
CLOSING
We have worked together to get where we are now. This is the reason why we succeeded today. This is what has brought us this far.

We are not strangers to hardships and challenges. You, whose lives are profoundly dependent on the benevolence of the earth know this. Despite the challenges and the hardships, we are steadily succeeding in the fight.

For the challenges and the hardships that we overcome bring us closer to the threshold of a new and progressive Philippines by the turn of the century — a progressive nation at peace with itself and the world.

Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat!