LEGAZPI CITY --- A godson of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Mayor Noel Rosal of this city, said the best way to stave off the threatening food crisis in the country is to adopt the “Green Revolution” program of then President Ferdinand E. Marcos during Martial Law.

        Rosal said such program would sustain substantial food supply, especially for poor households, even after Pres. Arroyo’s term expires in 2010.

        “We were caught unprepared by an imminent rice shortage and this problem will completely hurt our economy. The best way to counter the problem is for the President to adopt Marcos’ Green Revolution program throughout the country,” Rosal told Bicol Mail.

        Rosal said this is now the time for the Department of Agriculture to refocus their program to address the hovering food crisis and improve agricultural production.

        He said that under the Green Revolution program the government may confiscate idle lands if landowners fail or refuse to fully utilize such lands and farmlands.

        The government, according to Rosal, should also strictly regulate mass land conversions across the country to conserve agricultural lands for food production.

        Rosal was the first local executive in Bicol to admit that many poor families in his city have already been skipping meals due to dwindling rice supply and their high cost if available.

        At least three government officials in Bicol, specifically in Albay, have joined hands to do something about the food crisis hounding the countryside.

        Rep. Al Francis Bichara of the 2nd congressional district of Albay recently launched his own vegetable revolution in various schools as a hunger mitigating program that is also aimed at reducing malnutrition among public school children in his district.

        Albay Gov. Joey Sarte Salceda last week okayed the P21.5 million credit line for local chief executives of 15 towns and three cities as seed money to put up and operate NFA outlets to make sure rice are available and affordable for poor families in their respective towns and cities.

        Salceda also issued a directive enjoining all municipal and city mayors in Albay to apportion a bigger part of their funds for social services and the enhancement of food production through intensified LGU-supported planting of palay, coconut and other agricultural crops.

        The city government of Legazpi led by Mayor Rosal has also started its green revolution program in the upland barangays to increase food production.

        Of the six provinces and 7 cities in Bicol, Albay and Legazpi City were hardest hit by the recent disastrous typhoons and flashfloods that hit the region since the last months of 2006, putting agricultural and food production in its worst state.