In “an attempt to make the Philippines self-sufficient in salt production, a senior administration lawmaker Rep. Ron Salo of party-list Kabayan, authored and sponsored HB 1976. The Salo House Bill aims to revitalize the country’s salt industry through “comprehensive salt industry development program”.
HB 1976 mandates the Philippine government to provide technical. Physical and financial assistance to sea salt farmers, including artisanal salt farmers, to develop and improve their craft. Likewise, tasks the government to invest in the identification and construction of salt farms for lease to qualified salt farmers (individuals, cooperatives or corporations).
Rep. Salo attributes the country’s dependence on imported salt product by pointing out what he calls “an outdated policy regime, low quality control and product improvement, limited development of new production areas, unattractive business environment for small enterprises and lack of new investments.” He (Salo) is happy that key stakeholders supporting his Bill include the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) and Department of Science and Technology (DOST) as well as colleagues Reps. Richard Gomez (Leyte), Gerville Luistro (Batangas) and France Castro (ACT-party-list).
MY COMMENT:
As a marine biologist, I am well aware of the Philippines sea water area being an archipelagic country having 36,000 plus kilometers of shoreline, longer than that of continental USA – that can be utilized for massive salt production. And, therefore I find it ironic for our country to import 93 percent of its salt requirement. I have no information from a company whose top man told me about their salt-making project in Pangasinan?
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