This one began when PRRD signed into law the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, BARMM, on 26 July 2019[1]. (main image from MindaNews[2]) Importantly, "autonomous" means the BARMM will practice self-determination.
And yes, we are today witness to such self-determination. Today, they are holding the "1st BARMM Food Security Summit, Organic Agriculture and Halal Congress" in Cotabato City, 10-12 December 2019. I'm interested in the first item: food security. That is because many people have mistaken ideas about it, and they are not healthy!
Before, PH was going after food sufficiency, meaning we did not have to seek friends abroad when it comes to food. On Monday, 05 August 2019, Secretary of Agriculture William Dar/Manong Willie assumed office and PH Agriculture began thinking of food security. No, they are not the same. I say: Food sufficiency means you produce every single unit of food you need. Food security means you produce your best and import the rest; you are practicing the economic principle of comparative advantage – PH grows its best, and buys the rest from its Asian neighbors.
It turns out that BARMM knows better than us, the Christian majority. Not only about food security!
I am now browsing an ecopy of the "1st BARMM Food Security Summit" program sent via email by DA Senior Technical Adviser Santiago R Obien, SRO. On the afternoon of Day 1, today, there is the "Address on New Thinking for Agriculture" by the Secretary of Agriculture. I also note here that no other group has asked Manong Willie to explain such new thinking, and that in there are embedded "The Eight Paradigms." Exactly! If you have not been paying attention to Manong Willie or my many essays on the subject, you don't know what they are. The BARMM people are telling us they want to know what it is all about. They know something we don't! (Thanks, SRO.)
I quote now from the Overview Of The Summit:
The agriculture and fishery sector (has) had a major contribution to the economic development of the region... This has been made possible through the collective efforts of all stakeholders to promote a favorable ecosystem for agriculture and fishery...
"To promote a favorable ecosystem for agriculture and fishery" – those of us from Luzon and the Visayas are not talking in those terms! Whatever "ecosystem" means, we are not talking about a common ecosystem – we are talking only about our private ecosystem, or our group's. We want this, we want that; we need this, we need that. We think local, act local!
We are not thinking about what we can contribute to the new PH Agriculture; we are only thinking about what the new PH Agriculture can contribute to us!
The Cotabato Summit is looking forward "to the presentation of programs and projects that are geared towards addressing the challenges and bringing together support and agreements to pave way for a profitable agriculture and fishery sector."
You are insecure if you cannot think of a sector bigger than yours!@517
[1]https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/07/24/bangsamoro-organic-law-primer-everything-you-need-to-know-bbl.html
[2]https://www.mindanews.com/peace-process/2012/10/from-rag-to-armm-to-bangsamoro-salamat-hashim-would-have-approved-of-bangsamoros-proposed-territory/
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