DINGE, Iloilo -- President Rodrigo Roa Duterte launched the third “TienDA Para sa mga Bayani,” inside the Camp General Adriano D. Hernandez in this town on Thursday.
TienDA was designed as a strategy to save soldiers from the senseless killing of the New People’s Army (NPA) while at the same time a market scheme to provide farmers, fisherfolks and livestock raisers a venue to sell their products directly to consumers at farm gate price.
It came about when President Duterte raised during one of the command conferences of the Department of National Defense (DND) the killings of military personnel while they just went out to market.
While it didn’t happen every month, yet he said that “every now and then, there’s always that event of our soldiers dying during marketing days”.
“Yung mamalengke ‘yung sundalo, pinagpapatay ng NPA. Not in actual combat. No guns are drawn and yet, my soldiers are dying needlessly. Sabi ko, hanapan ninyo ito ng paraan kasi I do not want this even to continue time and again”(The soldier just went to market, then was killed by the NPA. Not in actual combat. No guns are drawn and yet, my solders are dying needlessly. I said, find a way because I do not want this even to continue time and again), Duterte said.
While it was first launched inside an army camp, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said he looked forward to bring it to municipalities before the end of Duterte's term.
In his message, Piñol also urged President Duterte to allow Overseas Filipino Workers to manage the TienDA as most of them are sons and daughters of farmers.
“It is also one of the solutions we could offer how to reintegrate OFWs who come home from Kuwait and other countries,” he said in an interview.
Piñol urged Duterte to authorize him to “coordinate” with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) because they wanted to “institutionalize” the program.
He said DOLE has money, thus, it can infuse capital funds to OFWs for them to run their outlets.
He added that they can serve as middlemen between farmers, thus products only have to pass one layer.
“The objective is really to open a store, an outlet for farmers products,” he said.
In a press conference held earlier inside the camp, the Secretary said he will ask funds from the President to develop the 1.5 hectare property beside the DA central office into a farmer’s supermarket building where farmers can bring in their products.
TienDA gathers sellers once a week in Metro Manila. But they still have to determine the system here in Dingle.
A total of 16 exhibitors from the Dingle Farmers Federation and from nearby towns that sell high-value commercial crops took part in Thursday's launching of the program.
The President during the visit was joined by Defense Undersecretary Cardozo Luna, Presidential Adviser for Military Affairs Arthur Tabaquero, Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino, Agriculture Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat, Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Rey Leonardo Guerrero, Central Command commander Lieutenant General Paul Atal and local officials led by Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor. (PNA)
Photos by Perla Lena
