DAVAO CITY — Three towns in Mindanao want to join the “Balik Probinsya, Balik Pag-asa” program (BPBPP) being pushed by the national government.
Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) chair Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the towns of Kauswagan in Lanao del Norte, Malaybalay in Bukidnon, and M’lang in North Cotabato have commited to adopting the program.
In a statement, Piñol said after Zamboanga del Norte agreed to establish the first Rural Resettlement Model for informal urban dwellers who want to join the BPBP, Lanao del Norte also accepted the challenge to build the said model with the town of Kauswagan as the pilot area.
Piñol said Kauswagan Mayor Rommel Arnado, who is an advocate of organic farming, said the town is ready to accept the first 200 families who would like to come home to Kauswagan or Lanao del Norte.
“They will be in a five-hectare housing-with-livelihood activity in Barangay Kudaran,” Piñol said.
The municipal government has already committed gardening equipment like small tractors and tools which were recently procured for the first Balik Probinsya beneficiaries of Lanao del Norte, he said.
Bukidnon Governor Jose Zubiri also expressed his full support for the program, which is an initiative of Senator Christopher Lawrence Go.
Piñol said Zubiri proposed a community of 200 families to be trained in vegetable farming and strawberry growing, and will be relocated in the vegetable production area of the province.
Piñols said North Cotabato Governor Nancy Catamco has also pledged to provide land and support services for the implementation of the BPBPP.
He said Catamco to utilize the provincial agro-industrial park in the town of M’lang for the growing of organic native chicken with a complete value chain.
May 10, 2020 – Sunday 6:05 PM by RUTH PALO
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