The above image is from a Facebook sharing of William " Manong Willie" Dar, with this note:
Had a meeting with Batangas Governor Hermilando Mandanas today. We agreed together to rally the Regional Development Councils (RDCs) of all regions to help and (request) all provincial governors to mobilize and appeal to the traders and millers… to buy at the right price the palay being harvested this season… Another mechanism is for the big cooperatives in the provinces to also procure palay at the right price. The provincial governments can have an agreement with NFA so additional budget can be invested thru NFA (to) procure, mill, and market the rice. Better yet if the provincial government can procure, mill, and market the rice. This is the time to help the rice farmers!
Why choose Governor Mandanas as farmer ally of the new DA? I like what I'm reading about Mr Mandanas – like, he is the Chair of Region IV-A (Calabarzon) Regional Development Council (RDC) of NEDA. As far as I can see, Mr Mandanas is an excellent choice of Manong Willie as a province-based local government champion of farmers for them to be able to receive their just rewards out of their rice harvests from the merchants.
Even as a public servant, Mr Mandanas knows business. He has a UP Masters in Business Administration and graduated with honors (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org). From 1963 to 1985, he worked with many private companies in various capacities. From 1995 to 2004, he was Governor of Batangas and became President of the Federation of Regional Development Councils of the Philippines. All those data from Wikipedia tell me Mr Mandanas is an excellent choice as a province-based ally of the DA in pursuing the better interests of farmers.
Manong Willie's Facebook sharing (above) says he and Mr Mandanas agreed "to rally the (RDCs) of all regions to help and (request) all provincial governors to mobilize and appeal to the traders and millers… to buy at the right price the palay." The National Food Authority, NFA, has also been recruited to help the farmers handle their rice. The cooperatives are also encouraged to help process & market the produce.
This combined appeal is unprecedented. No Secretary of Agriculture in the Philippines has done it before. An RDC is a regional unit of the National Economic & Development Authority, NEDA – I believe this is NEDA's first too.
Well, our farmers need all the help they can get!
I have been following the career of Manong Willie ever since he became the Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, based in India, in 01 January 2000, and retired on 31 December 2014. I was ICRISAT international consulting writer 2007-2014, so I know ICRISAT is farmer-oriented. In 2010, ICRISAT came up with the strategy called Inclusive Market-Oriented Development, IMOD. With IMOD, ICRISAT actively assisted the farmers in marketing their produce, to avoid being taken advantage of by merchants.
Manong Willie knows that you cannot leave the farmers alone especially at harvest time!@517
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