Government launches agri-aqua drive for cops

Apart from guns, policemen can also wield plows and hoes.

The government has launched a livelihood project for an agri-aqua livelihood program for the benefit of some 115,000 policemen and their dependents nationwide.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Leandro Mendoza said the project will tap the PNP’s under-utilized agricultural lands all over the country to support the Arroyo administration’s thrust to attain food sufficiency.

At the same time, the government set in motion its so-called "Gloria Labandera" rolling stores project to deliver basic commodities to the policemen’s households at affordable prices.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor have signed a memorandum of agreement providing for joint efforts to supply high-quality but cheap commodities including rice for PNP commissaries and satellite police camps nationwide.

The PNP livelihood project, part of the agriculture department’s Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) program, was designed to provide policemen and their dependents with farm inputs, appropriate training and other support services to enable them to set up feasible agri-fishery projects.

Under the project, a model farm will be set up in Parang, Maguindanao where the policemen-beneficiaries and their respective families can engage in tree planting, vegetable and livestock raising and aquaculture to augment the family income. Mendoza stressed that the policemen could indulge in their livelihood projects outside their tour of duty.

Mendoza also said they will tap the various PNP cooperatives to ensure the success of the livelihood program.

Other PNP officials designated to help push the program were Deputy Directors Rex Piad and Reynaldo Velasco, chiefs of the PNP directorial staff and directorate for comptrollership, respectively; Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante and Cesar Drilon, National Food Authority administrator Anthony Abad and Bureau of Soils and Water Management director Rogelio Concepcion.

Meanwhile, five rolling stores were dispatched to each police regional command to offer basic commodities at low prices to police households.