MANILA – Senator Cynthia Villar slammed the officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA) due to their alleged failure to boost dairy production – a main reason for Filipino children’s low intelligence.
Villar made the severe reprimand to an official of the
Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) during a Senate hearing on Monday.
According to the senator, the officials allotted
more resources to buy new vehicles than improve dairy production, which she
said remained stuck at one percent.
“Partly to blame kayo sa kabobohan ng mga bata. Ang mga bata pinapainom ng milk para tumalino. Ang dairy program ay
partly to blame. Kung walang
available na murang gatas para sa mga
bata, pano iinom ng gatas ang mga
bata?” Villar said.
Based on the data from the Philippine Statistics
Authority (PSA), the dairy production in 2018 reached 23,690 metric tons (MT),
which was valued at P901.3 million.
The Foreign Agricultural Service report of the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), meanwhile, identified New
Zealand as the Philippines’ top source of dairy products, followed by the US
and Australia./PN
