Spotlight: Urdaneta's Food Program a template for the entire province

When we run into news and commentaries like the ones below, one can't help but feel good about being an Urdanetan, especially when news of food crisis loom not only over the entire country but the whole world as well. Kudos to the efforts of the City Mayor, Amadito Perez Jr.

Full commentaries below:

With Urdaneta’s City Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. at the helm, Urdanetans will undoubtedly be one of the more fortunate Pinoys who will never have to go hungry in the face of a food crisis.

The city’s Tulungan sa Purok, a food production program through self-reliance, is a timely no-frills and simple yet practical community project that doesn’t require a congressman’s pork barrel to get it done and can result in millions-worth of goodwill. It’s a kind of project whose full benefits when successful will surely be felt by the community. Above all, the community will have the rare privilege of claiming and sharing the credit for and among themselves, taking pride in what they have accomplished together.

Obviously inspired by the success of the Green Revolution of the Marcos era, Mayor Perez was right to follow his commonsense by re-launching it simply with another label minus the usual grandstanding as one usually expects from politicians.

A community that has proven to be truly self-reliant evokes pride in everyone àso watch out for the truly proud Urdanetans in the year ahead.

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A NEW HALL OF FAMER. Mayor Perez, again perhaps learning from the lessons of the early successes of the martial law, feels the operational word for this community project is “force”, as in to “force” his constituents to be productive.

In a sense, he is right. Motivation hardly works in a place where people have been so used to mediocrity and easy money, easy go. The only way he can make people reap the benefits of self-reliance is to force them initially to do what they never imagined doing, in this case planting vegetables and fruit trees in their backyards.

Hopefully, “force” will be replaced by another buzz word —”initiative” — over time by the communities themselves. And Mayor Perez will be the first to realize that the transformation has began once the communities begin to demand that they be allowed to plant in unoccupied, idle government and private lands.

And why not?

For this feat and his other equally ambitious yet achievable projects, I name Mayor Perez to our Hall of Distinguished Creative Leaders. (He is joined by Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza).

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A TEMPLATE FOR THE PROVINCE. The Urdaneta project is a good template and deserves to be copied in all towns.

All it takes are town executives armed with the political will and the vision to see their constituents survive an impending food crisis, and motivated communities who want nothing but respect for themselves as they seek to ensure that their families will always have enough food on the table brought about with the toil of their hands.

Foremost of all, it needs a provincial executive to see to it that it’s done.

Imagine Pangasinan to be self-sufficient in rice, vegetables and fruits without need to infuse millions which otherwise could be used for better classrooms well-equipped with quality books. Pangasinan will be the envy of the rest.

It’s a dream that Guv Spines can verily turn into a reality well within his first term. But would he find such a proposition challenging, if not interesting enough?

Given what’s before us, bridges and roads can wait, but not food.

By Ermin F. Garcia Jr.

http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/2008/05/13/punchline-117/