BBM Comands Team Creation to Diminish El Niño Brunt, Gives Midsalipnon Hope

As irrigation systems dries up, due to the effect of El Niño, one farmer in Golictop, Midsalip,
Tatay Jesus M. Bandolon, who was born in a family of farmers and has been farming for more than 10
years is currently battling in growing his crops as farmlands can’t be irrigated which forbids him on
paying the money that he borrowed for the resources needed in crop production, was given optimism
when Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr. ordered the formation of a
squad to combat El Niño Impacts.

He also struggled on growing his crops due to the reason that his crops were burned because of
the heat caused by El Niño.

He was just one of the farmers who was affected by the heat caused by El Niño and was given
hope from the order of government team creation under Bongbong’s Administration.

According to the Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno of the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD), the
president issued the directive during a meeting with the OCD in Malacañang that concentrates on
reducing the effects of the incoming El Niño occurrence.

The government's response to the present El Niño issue in the Philippines was Team Creation.

Marcos wants his administration to launch a public awareness campaign urging people to
conserve water along with preparing for a potential water crisis brought on by El Niño.

As reported, the president would want a convergence effort between NIA and the Local Water
Utilities Administration (LWUA) to address the challenge of managing water resources, especially during
the rainy season.

Moreover, Eduardo Guillen, the acting chief of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA),
declared that his organization had developed short-, medium-, and long-term remedies to the drought
that is anticipated to impact the nation in the upcoming months.

“In fact, we have what is called a cropping calendar which we use to plan which areas to irrigate.
And in this case, we will prioritize those areas for rice planting near the [water] source,” Guillen said in
the same briefing.

“This will be done in close coordination with the DA (Department of Agriculture) so we can
offset the shortage [of water] during the dry season in those areas for planting. We will concentrate on
hybrid rice because it produces twice the output during the dry season,” he added.