Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday reiterated his call for rebels to give up their armed struggle and join the provincial government in its fight for freedom from poverty and injustice for everyone.

“Come down and we will give you livelihood assistance so you can improve your lives and send your children to school”, he said.

The governor issued the call at the celebration of the country’s 116th Independence Day at the Capitol Lagoon Park in Bacolod City, where he distributed P2.14 million in assistance to farmers groups and insurance benefits to families of barangay tanods.

The governor distributed P1.1 million in hand tractors to 13 farmers groups, P75,937 in rice threshers to three groups, and P956,926 in tanod insurance benefits.

Marañon said, “Our forefathers fought for our country’s freedom from foreign colonizers, today everyone must join hands in fighting for a different kind of freedom – freedom from poverty and injustice.

“There is so much want in a wide field of plenty, there is a big gap that should not exist,” he said.

That is why the provincial government is pouring in huge amounts of resources to improve agriculture and to ensure food security, he said.

The governor again thanked President Benigno Aquino for giving Negros Occidental P621 million to boost agriculture in a span of four years, which, he said, is larger than what all the presidents, since the time of Manuel Roxas, have given the province.

There should be no Negrense or Filipino who should go hungry because the Philippines is very rich in resources, he said.

Quoting US President John Kennedy, Marañon said “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” in challenging Negrenses to join the fight against poverty.

To those in the hills still fighting the government, the governor said that even if he sounds like a broken record, he is reiterating his call for them to instead join him in the fight against poverty.

“Let us not fight each other, the enemy is not us, the enemy is poverty. Let us work hand-in-hand to solve poverty and make this country great again,” he appealed.

On the recent rebel bombing of a transloading station of Lopez Sugar Corp. in Escalante City, the governor asked, what do they gain by doing that?

“Those who live by the gun, die by the gun. I want them to die happily in the comfort of a hospital, from old age,” he said, in reiterating his call for the rebels to give up their armed struggle.

In his welcome message, Vice Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, said “Let us always be reminded that, as Filipinos, we have obligations to preserve the meaning of independence and take this seriously to ourselves.”

“Let us continue to work to solve the many pressing problems of our society like poverty in the countryside and corruption in many offices,” he added.*CPG

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