Cebu City Councilor Jun Alcover | Screengrab via Sangguniang Panlungsod Cebu City -Secretariat Facebook live
CEBU CITY, Philippines –”Palpak” was the word that Cebu City Councilor Jun Alcover Jr. described the service of the City Agriculture Department (CAD) to its constituents.
In his privilege speech during the council’s regular session on Wednesday, April 4, Alcover advised the head of the City Agriculture Department (CAD), Joelito Baclayon, to step down from his position to save the fate of the farmers in Cebu City.
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“I would give a friendly advice to Mr. Joelito Baclayon to step down as head of CAD to save the fate of farmers and the leadership of Mayor Mike Rama(in) this time of drought,” Alcover said.
He said that he requested the agencies and offices including CAD to provide an action plan in preparation for El Niño.
“Mr. Chairman, I would reiterate that I submitted on March 28, 2023, a report to the executive department together with our recommendations after I called a meeting with the representatives of the concerned agencies and offices upon the verbal order of the Mayor,” Alcover said.
He added that Baclayon and CAD had no clear plans until now.
Alcover even commended the farmers for having an initiative to take action against El Niño.
“Mas nangamdam pa ang mga farmers o mag-uuma sa kabukiran kay niadto pang miaging tuig nisumiter na sila og request sa mga kagamitan sa panguma,” he said.
(The farmers in the mountains are even better in the sense that they were even taking action to prepare because last year they submitted a request for farming equipment.)
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Meanwhile, he revealed that CAD did not utilize its whole budget last year.
According to Alcover, out of P85.9 million, only P21 million was used last year.
He added that the national government added P7 million to the Bayanihan program in 2021 but was left unused.
Alcover said that these circumstances were considered “gross negligence” under Civil Service Rules and Regulations on public employees.
“Ang nakasakit Mr. Chair, gilingog-lingogan ra ang mga requests sa mga mag-uuma nga ila unta kining gamiton karon sa El Niño,” Alcover said.
(What hurts, Mr. Chair, is that the request of the farmers were ignored that the farmers could have used now in El Niño.)
Over 11,000 farmers in the city will be affected due to El Niño.
“Ang mga mag-uuma nagpa-eskwela sa ilang mga anak. Tungod niining kapalpak (I am sorry to use this word “KAPALPAK”) sa CAD nga gitahasan niining mga lakang, posibli nga maapektohan ang ilang pagtungha,” he added.
(Our farmers send their children to school. Because of the failure of CAD that had been tasked to make these moves, the schooling of these children had been affected.)
CDN Digital has already reached out to Joey Baclayon but we have not yet received an official response from the CAD head.