First Lady Marie Louise “Liza” Araneta-Marcos met with sugar industry stakeholders in Bacolod City on Friday, August 14, to listen to concerns over widespread crop destruction caused by red-striped soft scale insects (RSSI) and to assure them that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will visit the province soon, Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) said.
“The First Lady is concerned, and the Palace is concerned. She wanted to get firsthand accounts of what is going on regarding RSSI, which has become a national concern, so she can relay them to the President,” Benitez told DIGICAST NEGROS.
“She came here to listen, but she also assured us that the President will come soon to address the problem and give commitments,” he added.
The First Lady has roots in Negros Occidental as her father Manuel L., Araneta was raised in Bago City, Negros Occidental.
Benitez noted that the First Lady wants all sectors involved in finding a solution. Reiterating the need to set aside politics, he emphasized that the main goal is to bring everyone together to find common ground and resolve the issue collectively.
“The goal is to come up with a unified action plan against RSSI and to lay down commitments from various stakeholders and government agencies,” Benitez said. “I believe there will be a timeline on this soon. There should be developments next week, and we will announce them once the framework and action plan are finalized.”
The meeting was attended by sugarcane planters, labor representatives, Sugar Regulatory Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona, Deputy House Speaker and Bacolod Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez, and Department of Agriculture Regional Director Jose Albert Barrogo.\
Roland de la Cruz, president of the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines, said the meeting with the First Lady was very good because it was agreed that a unified approach towards addressing the RSSI would be adopted.
“It was agreed that it has to be a whole of industry and a whole of nation approach to addressing the problem and the First Lady was the unifying factor”, he said.
“This is needed because the RSSI infestation will not only have an effect on infestation on production but on employment. It will be a huge problem if it is not addressed,” de La Cruz said.
While in Bacolod, the First Lady also led the distribution of 10-kilogram rice assistance packs to about 2,000 senior citizens under the Mula sa Puso Para sa Pamilya program with Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez and Bacolod Mayor Greg Gastaya at the STI West Negros University Gym.
“As a mother, I know the importance of having food on the table,” she said.*
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