Senator Franchis “Chiz” Escudero PHOTO BY ARNOLD ALMACEN/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
ISULAN, Sultan Kudarat—Vice presidential candidate Sen. Francis Escudero on Thursday blamed the Department of Agriculture (DA) for the farmers suffering from the effects of the El Niño phenomenon.
Escudero told reporters here that the DA failed to study the measures to be taken during the long dry spell even as officials knew it was coming.
Speaking before students at the Sultan Kudarat State University on Thursday afternoon, he said the agency has neither implemented a new irrigation system nor a water impounding project.
“They do cloud seeding, but is this the only thing they know?” he said.
Last year, the weather bureau warned against severe drought starting October, when the prevailing El Niño steps up to its most intense stage.
State of calamity
In Central Mindanao and in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, officials have declared a state of calamity due to destruction caused by the dry spell.
Maguindanao was one of the provinces in Mindanao identified by the weather bureau as one to experience extreme heat as a result of the El Niño phenomenon.
Initial reports from the Maguindanao provincial agriculture office revealed that more than P150-million worth of corn, palay and other high-value crops have been damaged since early January, affecting more than 10,000 farmers in the province’s 36 municipalities.
Escudero said that if he and his running mate Sen. Grace Poe win, they will put up a national water transmission pipeline similar to the power transmission grid.
“It is time we use technology—get water from somewhere else and bring it to where it is needed,” he said, noting that El Niño could be at its strongest in Mindanao while there is flooding in Manila. Jeoffrey Maitem, Inquirer Mindanao