DA-12 has new RED, bares PRIDE

KORONADAL CITY -Engineer Milagros Casis, the former municipal administrator of Pigcawayan town in North Cotabato province, officially accepted the challenge as the Regional Executive Director (RED) of the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office 12 (DA RFO 12) in a turn-over ceremony Thursday here.Carlene Collado, who held the position as the OIC-RED from July 1, 2016 to September 30, 2016, passed the torch to Director Casis as the newest DA 12 chief.Collado is now detailed as the OIC-RED of DA in Northern Mindanao (DA RFO 10).In her acceptance message, the lady director noted, With my greatest desire to put agriculture in SOCCSKSARGEN in pedestal, I hereby accept the responsibility and accountability with utmost dedication and with PRIDE, which means Personal Responsibility In Delivering Excellence as your newly-appointed Regional Executive Director. She also vowed to track right direction towards advanced and improved technical and developmental interventions in attaining the President’s dream of providing ‘available and affordable’ food for the Filipino people. Director Casis also thanked Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol for entrusting her the position in the agri chief’s home region.Meanwhile, Collado expressed his gratitude to DA 12, saying To everybody who worked with the regional management well and without hesitations, maraming salamat. Sana lahat ay patuloy na makiisa sa bagong anyo ng DA, ang anyo ng pagbabago para sa kasiyahan ng ating mga magsasaka (thank you. I hope that all of you will continue to support the new DA management, a new form for the joy of our farmers). Aside from the full support of DA 12 employees, Assistant Secretary for Livestock Enrico Garzon, M’lang Vice-Mayor Joselito Piñol, local agriculture officials, and farmer leaders from different areas in the region also joined the affair.In the later part of the program, checks for different projects under DA were also turned-over.Eleven local government units (LGUs) from the four provinces of the region received checks worth P20.4-M courtesy of the Bottom-up Budgeting (BUB) program.Under PAyapa at MAsaganang PamayaNAn (PAMANA), P43.9-M was downloaded to the Department of Public Works and Highways Region 12 for the construction of three farm-to-market roads, and six LGUs received its respective project funds worth P16.5-M.The regional winner and a national finalist in the Search for Outstanding Rural Women, Jennifer Farillon of Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat was also conferred with her cash prize worth P30,000.00 and a Plaque of Recognition.Farillon’s assisting technician Norma Hasigan also received P15,000.00 as an incentive.