KIDAPAWAN CITY – “Manok Pinoy” or native chicken genetically bred with bigger sizes and tastier meat will be sold in local markets starting next year, according to its breeder farmer-cum-bureaucrat Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol.
Piñol, also a former journalist-turned-politician after election as mayor, governor, and vice governor in North Cotabato, formally introduced the enhanced native chicken species in a dinner he hosted at his farm here on Nov. 21 for groups of guests celebrating memorable events that day.
Two of the groups were led by businesswoman Rachel Tan-Renucci, her French husband Patrick, and psychosocial and medical experts from the University of the Philippines who helped earthquake victims in this city and nearby towns earlier in the day.
The Renucci couple donated 40 tons of Golden Dinorado rice to earthquakes-affected families in North Cotabato and Davao del Sur, while the UP team provided post-tremor medical and psychosocial interventions, Piñol said.
Another group was led by North Cotabato Gov. Nancy A. Catamco, who officially reassumed office on Nov. 21 from a 30-day preventive suspension imposed by the Sandiganbayan over a fertilizer supply deal she transacted in Cebu in 2014 while she was a businesswoman or not connected with government yet.
During the dinner, Piñol said he served his guests roasted samples of “the free-range chicken which I personally bred and developed over the last nine years – Manok Pinoy.”
“This is the tastiest chicken I have ever tasted,” he quoted Rachel as saying while she, Catamco, and the rest of the guests were feasting over their share of lechon Manok Pinoy stuffed with lemon grass and tamarind leaves and wrapped in banana leaves.
Pinol said Rachel even volunteered to join him in feeding the Manok Pinoy hens and roosters so she “would appreciate farm life.”
He said he breeds the species for nine years as a “genetic experiment” to enhance the size and taste of ordinary local native chicken, and registered it as “Manok Pinoy” with the Intellectual Property Office.
He said he developed the species to have dark legs or dark spotted legs to differentiate them from the yellow-legged broilers, dark feathers, and pea-combed to emphasize their Oriental blood.
“I actually develop my ideal free-range chicken because I prefer native chicken over the 30-day broilers,” said Piñol, who was elected mayor in Mlang, North Cotabato in 1995, as governor from 1998 to 2007, and vice governor in 2007-2010.
His political career hit a lull when he ran again for governor in 2010 but lost to then Gov. Lala Taliño-Mendoza.
Piñol made use of his nine-year reprieve from politics to engage in modern farming ventures, including his breeding of the Manok Pinoy until President Duterte appointed him Secretary of Agriculture in 2016 and head of the Mindanao Development Authority last August. (Ali Macabalang)
