President Rodrigo Duterte (Photo from an RTVM video)
CLARK FREEPORT ZONE, Pampanga—President Rodrigo Duterte pushed on Thursday for the improvement of manufacturing sites to process products of the agricultural sector and spur economic growth in the countryside.
But before it becomes a reality, Duterte said that peace should be present in the area.
“We have to improve the manufacturing site of the agricultural sector. That is the only way we can improve things. But we have to have law or peace there,” Duterte said during the first Kapampangan Food Fest here.
The President again took swipe at the communist rebels who kept on collecting revolutionary taxes from companies and establishments.
“’Yung bagong pumapasok (The new ones) they start to extort. And they said they are helping the Filipinos for subsidizing what? How many members of the politburo? The central committee. ‘Yan lang naman nag-enjoy e (They were the only ones who are enjoying),” Duterte said.
Through a proclamation, Duterte on Tuesday finally put a halt on the intermittent peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), by declaring them as terrorist groups.
READ: Duterte signs Proclamation No. 360 terminating peace talks with NPA
Duterte also said the only way to nip rural poverty in the bud is through land reform and distributing more lands to farmers.
“The only way to improve it really is to give more lands, if you can afford it. I am for land reform. I am for… isa ‘yan sa mga sinabi ko sa kampanya (it’s one of what I have said during the campaign) and I will not renege on it,” he said. /jpv