The government should take immediate steps to help the drought-stricken farmers, while making urgent repairs of irrigation and water impounding systems.
NP-NPC-LDP vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda, who chairs the Senate agriculture committee, said the government must make sure the farmers and their farmlands will survive the El Nino phenomenon with enough emergency funds through a [...]

Senator Loren Legarda urged the National Food Authority (NFA) to strictly observe bidding rules and transparency in the controversial tariff-free rice importation program being implemented by the agency amid complaints of alleged irregularities in the awarding of permits.
The program involves the tax-free importation of 200,000 metric tons of rice to be allocated to importers from [...]