Camarines Sur (CamSur) Rep. LRay Villafuerte is rooting for President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos .Jr for putting agriculture, health, and tourism on his must-do list in his first State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) of what the new government will focus on to stimulate high growth, improve the lives of Filipinos and keep down economic scarring from the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Putting farm modernization plus productivity, public healthcare, and tourism infrastructure, among others, in front and center of the Marcos administration over the medium term will let President BBM achieve his SONA-announced target to raise economic growth to 6.5% to 8% from 2023 to 2028, and his ‘Bayan Bangon Muli’ presidential campaign promise to uplift the lives of all Filipinos,” said Villafuerte.
For Villafuerte, the President was correct in putting a premium on farm modernization and productivity as he couldn’t truly uplift Filipino lives by not paying attention to farmers who make up almost 10 million of the population.
“Let us give a big hand to the President for being spot on in his first ever SONA in giving paramount attention to agriculture, health, and tourism,” Villafuerte said, “as revving up these sectors would stimulate high growth, create jobs and raise incomes, especially in the countryside, where a majority of our people remain poor and have been hit hard by the over two-year pandemic. Healthcare is also a must, as improving lives not only means providing Filipinos with better economic and livelihood opportunities but also making them healthy enough to lead long productive lives.”
Villafuerte commended the President for giving priority to public health, following his SONA commitment to building specialty hospitals across the country, similar to those that were built in the national capital region (NCR) during the previous Marcos Sr. administration.
The legislator was referring to the four specialty hospitals in Metro Manila—Philippine Heart Center (PHC), National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI), Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC), and Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP)—that have for decades been providing quality healthcare, especially to low-income Filipinos.
“Building such specialty hospitals in all regions is a home run for President BBM as this will ensure that ordinary Filipinos outside the national capital will have easier access to quality healthcare that they couldn’t otherwise afford, given the high cost of medical treatment and the lack of superior health facilities in the provinces,” Villafuerte said.
He hailed the President’s plan to further expand the delivery of quality healthcare by building more health centers and clinics in the provinces, along with asking the 19th Congress to write new legislation creating our own Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and vaccine institute.
As aptly stressed by the President, he said, the government must “bring medical services to the people and not wait for them to come to our hospitals and healthcare centers.”
Villafuerte supported the President’s plan to strengthen the healthcare system by improving the welfare of doctors, nurses, and other medical frontliners, and to work with local and foreign pharmaceutical firms in finding ways to slash the retail prices of medicines.
He backed, moreover, Mr. Marcos’ directive to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to encourage overseas manufacturers of generic drugs, which are cheaper, to set up shop in the country, and for the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) to prevent drug manufacturers from acting like cartels.
Villafuerte said the President was right in saying that providing more financial and technical support to farmers and freeing them from their awarded land payments will allow them to channel their resources into developing their farms, maximizing their capacity to produce, and help propel the growth of the domestic economy.
He said the President’s first SONA has shown that the over 31 million voters who chose Mr. Marcos—giving him the biggest electoral majority in the country’s history—did right in voting for him as he had given in his over hour-long invigorating speech a precise appraisal of the current state of our nation and, more importantly, what needs to be done for us—as he described it—to “endure” and move forward to better lives in the post-pandemic era.
For Villafuerte, the President was correct in putting a premium on farm modernization and productivity as he couldn’t truly uplift Filipino lives by not paying attention to farmers who make up almost 10 million of the population.
An advocate of higher agricultural productivity, the former CamSur governor noted that President Marcos had, in his SONA, committed to boosting farm output and stabilizing food costs by raising state spending on financial and technical assistance to farmers by initiatives such as providing fertilizer, seeds and other farm inputs to tillers and expanding their access to rural credit.
Villafuerte, who had seen the rise of Camarines Sur as one of the country’s top palay producers on his watch as governor, backed President Marcos’: (1) plan to issue an executive order or EO imposing a one-year moratorium on the payment of land amortization and interest payments by farmers, and (2) call on the 19th Congress to pass a law to truly emancipate agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) by condoning the loans of these ARBs, including their unpaid amortizations plus interests.
He likewise supported the proposal of the President for beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) who have yet to receive their awarded lands to get such farms without having to pay for or amortize them.
As the President said in his SONA, condoning such agrarian reform loans will benefit 654,000 ARBs covering 1.18 million hectares of awarded lands valued at a combined P58.125 billion.
Villafuerte said the President was right in saying that providing more financial and technical support to farmers and freeing them from their awarded land payments will allow them to channel their resources into developing their farms, maximizing their capacity to produce, and help propel the growth of the domestic economy.
The Bicolano lawmaker said Mr. Marcos was right, too, in his SONA in citing the invaluable role of tourism in the worldwide promotion of the Filipino brand, given its importance not only as an economic development tool but also as a provider of opportunities for employment and job creation in the grassroots.
Moreover, Villafuerte backed the Chief Executive’s directive in his SONA for the Departments of Tourism (DOT) and Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to work together in improving road networks, upgrading airports, and building other tourism infrastructure—in the President’s words—to provide easier access to tourism spots and make it more convenient for travelers to go around the country, even to remote areas to help promote undiscovered tourist spots.
Villafuerte had long appealed to the DOT to build more tourism infrastructure, including building better roads going to tourist spots and putting up viewing decks, souvenir shops and tourist lounges with free wi-fi along the routes as a way to encourage foreign and local visitors to go to must-see places even in faraway provinces.
He pointed out that CamSur was declared by the DOT as the country’s No. 1 tourist destination during his term as governor when he aggressively promoted (1) the CamSur Watersports Complex (CWC) as a hub for extreme sports, and (2) the Caramoan Island as an eco-tourism haven.
Without national government support, he said the provincial government had almost singlehandedly marketed both sites as premier destinations, leading to CWC becoming the site of international extreme sports competitions and the Caramoan Island being the venue for various editions of the international reality TV franchise “Survivor.”
