Palace: Food security summit will address changes brought by pandemic
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Thursday defended its decision to call for a food security summit, saying a new strategy is needed to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque announced on Wednesday that the executive department is calling for a food security summit to discuss issues affecting the agriculture sector, including the rising prices of pork products.
Mindanao Development Authority chairman Emmanuel Piñol took offense at the announcement, saying it appeared that he knew nothing about food security planning.
Piñol is a former agriculture secretary.
In an online post, Piñol said it seemed that the idea to hold a food summit only surfaced now, when a food security master plan was one of the "major undertakings" of the agriculture department in 2018.
He also noted that a food security summit that sought to address food shortage was already done more than two years ago.
Asked to react to Piñol's statement, Roque said the food summit is necessary because the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the everyday lives of Filipinos.
"Assuming that there was a previous food summit, the pandemic is really a game changer. We never thought there would be a pandemic of this scale and scope and we still need a food summit," Roque said at a press briefing.
Roque said it seemed that the earlier food security summit was only held in some areas.
"And of course, after COVID-19, we need a new strategy because COVID-19 really changed our everyday lives completely," he added.
Roque said it would be up to the agriculture department to decide on the date of the food summit, which also seeks to strengthen the cooperation between local governments, the private sector, and other stakeholders.
In the same online post, Piñol said commitments of support, especially in providing facilities for greater production, were made to local executives who attended the food security summit. He said most of the recommendations of the master plan were not implemented because it was not given priority funding.
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