SP urges LGUs to have gardens

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu Provincial Board has urged the cities and municipalities to assist barangays to set up gardens to ensure food safety and to provide a sustainable source of food for impoverished residents.

Cebu Fourth District Representative Board Member Thadeo Jovito Ouano, chairman of the Provincial Board Committee on Public Safety, Peace and Order, recently filed a resolution encouraging LGUs of the province’s cities and municipalities to aid barangays in the cultivation of individual or cooperative-based gardens.

Ouano wrote in the resolution about the report of an increase in the percentage of underweight individuals in the country from 19 to 25 percent to 30 to 34 percent from the years 2013-2015.

He also cited a 2018 survey conducted by the Social Weather Station which reports that 19 million Filipinos, where 10 million of this figure, suffer severe hunger.

"It is one of the topmost priorities of the Provincial Government of Cebu that all people, especially Cebuanos, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food," the resolution read.

Copies of the resolution will be furnished to all the mayors for their consideration. (FREEMAN)