GINGOOG CITY, Misamis Oriental (PIA)–The Local Government of Gingoog City now aims to develop its agricultural and industrial sector to cull Communist Terrorist Group-New People’s Army (CTG-NPA) influence in their area as support to President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order (EO) 70 or the whole of nation approach in ending local communist armed conflict.
“As far as from what we can remember way back in in the 1980’s, ang Gingoog City ay isa po siya sa major producers ng coffee sa buong pilipinas, but dahil po sa insurgency during that time maraming barangay ang nag declare ng no man’s land so kaya po, talagang binalik nating ang suporta para sa mga farmers,” said Gingoog City mayor Erick Cañosa during the Network Briefing News with Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, September 15.
(As far as from what we can remember way back in the 1980s, Gingoog City was one of the major producers of coffee in the country, but due to the insurgency during that time many barangays declared no man’s land, so that’s why we have actually now returned support for farmers)
With Gingoog City having a huge bulk of its landmass as public forest lands (both classified and unclassified forests). The city composing of 79 barangays, of which 29 are classified as urban and 50 as rural barangays, now rallies its various communities through its ‘GOLD’ strategic direction, which stands for Good governance and accountability, Opportunities for agriculture tourism and sports development, Livelihood development and implementation, and Delivery of health, education, and social services (GOLD).
Cañosa said they have now appropriated a P180 million budget for agricultural development programs in Gingoog with an additional P3 million as support to farmer associations and cooperatives for their daily living and initiatives, such as developing dairy centers, capacitating agricultural groups, and developing infrastructures in strong coordination with the Department of Agriculture (DA).
“Meron tayong coastal area and meron din tayong farmland area na nasa sa bundok na dito po naka focus ang GOLD strategic directions, nagbigay po tayo ng hanapbuhay as support sa farming like for example po sa fast tracks sa rice, corn, and banana,” he added.
(We have coastal areas and we also have farmland areas in the mountains where the GOLD strategic directions are focused, we provide livelihood support to farming like for example fast-tracking our rice, corn, and banana produce)
By unifying its diverse communities and developing its agri-industrial sector, Cañosa hopes that it will build the right building blocks to completely counter CTG-NPA propaganda in their area and finally attain sustainable long-lasting peace in Gingoog.
“We are working as one, tayo po ay nag fo-focus sa (we are focusing on) GOLD strategic direction, and its opportunities,” he said. (VPSB/PIA-10/Misamis Oriental)
