TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte – The farming sector could easily be a boon to the Eastern Visayas region whose economy has been plagued by typhoons and other natural disasters.
According to real estate developer and former DPWH secretary Victor A. Domingo, farmers of this region should also look into other plantations apart from their usual coconut and copra productions.
Domingo said there is a huge demand both locally and abroad when it comes to coffee, cacao, rubber tree and abaca plantations, products that can grow for the most part of the region.
Speaking during the 41st induction of officers of the Rotary Club of San Juanico at Ironwood Hotel, Domingo said farmers should take advantage of President Duterte’s promise of ample support in the agriculture sector through the efforts of Agriculture secretary Manny Piñol.
The Eastern Visayas economy has been one of the poorest as its area has been a regular path of most of the typhoons that has entered the country.
In one of his countryside tours, Piñol described the region as ‘an island of ironies’ due to the supposed ‘twisted mindset’ of its local government units.
“I saw poverty along the way. People were queuing up for water in a small faucet along the road but there were so many covered basketball courts built using tens of millions of people’s money,” said Piñol. (Nestor L. Abrematea)
