Prelate tells Noynoy to prioritize food production

The incoming administration of President-elect Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III must prioritize agriculture to spur food production, a senior Catholic Church official said. Retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said it would be wise to re-evaluate and strengthen the government's programs in agriculture. “That is the gift of nature to us and therefore by force of nature I hope agriculture will be prioritized because we have so much of it," Cruz said in an interview on Church-run Radyo Veritas. Excerpts of the interview were posted on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines news site. Cruz pointed out the Philippines is an agricultural country, and millions of people in the countryside depend on agriculture for livelihood. On the other hand, he chided the outgoing administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for failing to improve the agricultural industry. He said the Philippines used to be one of the biggest exporters of rice in the early 1970s, yet now imports the commodity. Cruz also chided the outgoing and the previous administrations for neglecting the agricultural sector, thus failing to initiate massive food production. He said people now leave farming areas in the provinces for urban areas to look for better jobs “which is also hard." “So development must turn back to the agricultural land so that people will work there with corresponding support services," he said. — LBG, GMANews.TV