TACLOBAN CITY – Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala designated Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Director Asis Perez to supervise all interventions for the rehabilitation of farming and fishery sectors in the region.
Alcala said during his visit in the city on February 28 that Perez will be regularly meeting the members of the regional management council (RMC), a body composed of regional directors of Department of Agriculture (DA) – attached agencies to get updates of recovery efforts.
“I give him a memorandum to find out needed interventions for all industries in the agriculture sector of Region 8. We need to immediately rehabilitate the farming sector to restore the livelihood of people,” Alcala said in a press briefing.
Alcala signed Special Order No.134 on February 10, designating Asis as special supervising officer.
Perez, in his message, said his primary task is to coordinate rehabilitation activities of the RMC member agencies and help create unity in assisting the farming and fishery sectors.
“Each agency needs to further improve the delivery of services through an operational strategy called the PPP approach or partnership among the people, public and private entities to deliver result through production,” Perez said.
The BFAR chief officially started to perform his duty through a special meeting on February 26 with DA-8 RMC members held inside the MV/DA-BFAR multi-purpose vessel.
Through the PPP scheme, the BFAR director recommended to get rid of “donor-beneficiary” mindset.
“We should consider the survivors as part of available resources that can be tapped to attain targets,” he stressed.
Perez cited the BFAR’s boat building strategy where affected fishermen are required to build their own fishing boat as their counterpart.
Among the priorities identified by Perez is the deployment of teams on the field, creation of support structure to handle procurement, systematic documentation of all activities.
The BFAR chief offered the MV/DA-BFAR vessel as the coordinating command center of the RMC members. The boat can also be used to transport supplies and implements for distribution to affected farmers.
By: SARWELL Q.MENIANO
