Sec. Claudio leads forum on food and energy security in Catarman

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
July 10, 2008

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte  –  A Forum on Food and Energy Security is scheduled to be conducted at the Provincial Capitol of Northern Samar on July 15, 2008, 4:00 - 5:30 in the afternoon.

Assistant Secretary Ian Norman Dato said that this is a continuation of the series of fora on food and energy security that have been conducted in the various parts of the Region in the past four weeks.

Political Adviser, Secretary Gabriel Claudio will once again head the Forum which is aimed at explaining to the people that the current problems besetting the country are part of a global problem on food and energy security and that the country’s problems is just a microcosm of a global situation.

The Forum also seeks to inform the people the initiatives and programs, the government has put in place and the many more in the pipeline, in order to mitigate the impact of the current problem which is the aftermath of a world situation.

Furthermore, the Forum shall exhort the citizenry to do their part in solving the problem by presenting to them various concrete ways and means they can undertake to help the government solve the problem.

Before the Forum, the group headed by Secretary Claudio will conduct inspection of the Catarman Public Market in order to monitor the availability of NFA rice in that part of the country.

The Forum will have a multi sectoral participation with the local government officials, representatives of the government line agencies, the academe, the businessmen and leaders of non-government organizations expected to be in attendance.

As in the previous for a, the inputs, the insights, and recommendations of the Regional Directors with respect to the programs to mitigate the food and energy situation are essential to the people’s genuine understanding of the problems that are upon the country and the government’s response to them, thus the need for them to be present, Asec. Dato said.