KABUGAO, Apayao – Gov. Elias C. Bulut, Jr. urged employees of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the province to come out of their offices and advocate for the programs and projects of their agencies to help improve the productivity of farmers and preserve and protect the environment.
Speaking during the launching of the Elias K. Bulut barangay in this municipality, the governor underscored DA and DENR employees must be visible in the field teaching the farmers how to improve their productivity, setting an example in the cultivation of agricultural crops and spearheading environmental preservation and protection programs to convince people to believe in the programs of government.
“We are saddened to learn that DA and DENR offices just confine themselves in their offices which should not be the considering that they are supposed to be out there teaching our farmers how to improve their productivity by setting examples. For those in the DENR offices, they must go out in the open and plant trees or conduct an inventory of old trees that need to be replaced, facilitate their being cut and replaced with new ones to sustain our efforts to preserve and protect the environment,” Bulut stressed.
He said Apayao has sufficient land areas that could be developed into potential agricultural plantation sites through the assistance of DA workers in the province for demo farms where farmers could learn the latest farming techniques to increase their production.
According to him, the members of the New Peoples Army (NPA) operating in the province should also lay down their arms and go back to the mainstream society because the provincial government is ready to provide them sustainable sources of income as forest guards to help maintain the identity of the province as the last frontier of nature in the north.
For the DENR workers, he suggested that they should come out of their offices and spearhead environmental preservation and protection programs by involving the youth in reforestation activities while teaching them how to get rid of old tress and for their replacement with new ones.
Bulut expressed confidence that the concerned employees of the said agencies will listen to his simple pieces of advise, citing that there must be visible improvements on how they handle the implementation of their programs and projects in the coming days so that the people of the province will feel their presence.
He said the presence of employees of national government agencies in the province is a welcome development as the provincial government will have easier access to their programs and projects but there is a need for the said government workers to be aggressive in cascading to the grassroots level their programs and projects that are intended to improve the living condition of people in the countryside.
He claimed DA and DENR workers are important in the province because their programs and projects are in line with the actual situation in the province but something must be done by them to make sure that people will be able to benefit from the said programs.
By HENT
