News Release No.111 Statement of DA Sec. William Dar on Bayanihan Law The Department of Agriculture (DA) will continue to work closely with the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) in implementing the "Bayanihan to Heal as One" law as the country transitions to the ‘new normal’ in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. We would like to thank President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, executive secretary Salvador Medialdea, budget secretary Wendel Avisado and finance secretary Carlos G. Dominguez for allocating part of the P205-billion program to Philippine agriculture, specifically P8.5 billion for our Rice Resiliency Project, to further enhance food production and availability. We assure the President and Secretary Dominguez, who also heads the Cabinet Economic Cluster, that the DA will work fervently to implement their marching order to allow our economy recover quickly upon the defeat of the virus. To address this objective, the DA has crafted the "Ahon Lahat, Pagkaing Sapat or ALPAS Laban COVID-19, otherwise called the Plant, Plant, Plant Program, which seeks to increase national agri-fishery output through intensified use of quality seeds, appropriate inputs, modern technologies to increase levels of productivity across all commodities, and thus ensure food productivity, availability, accessibility and affordability amidst the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. We wish to emphasize that the threat of hunger is as real as the threat of COVID-19. Hence, we will continue to partner with farmers' and fishers' groups, LGUs, private sector, academe, and NGOs to realize our vision of a food-secure Philippines teeming with prosperous farmers and fisherfolk. ### _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ .