Iwahig PDLs’ agri hard work pays off

A harvest festival in line with the Department of Agriculture and Department of Justice Reformation Initiative for Sustainable Environment for Food Security, or RISE, project was successfully held at the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Palawan on 5-7 December.

"This is the result of persons deprived of liberty's hard work to give back to the community," Bureau of Corrections Director General Gregorio Pio P. Catapang Jr. said.

The program showcased the initial success of the DA-DOJ RISE project, where various crops were harvested, such as sweet corn, watermelon, ampalaya, okra, tomatoes, red peppers, melon, sitaw (string beans), eggplant, cucumber, and rice.

The harvest came four months after the start of the project, which aims to provide effective reform programs to persons deprived of liberty and, at the same time, support the nation's food security.

The vegetables and crops will be available to the people of Puerto Princesa at affordable prices through Kadiwa pop-up stores around the city proper.

Catapang said the project will be replicated nationwide in other prison and penal farms to help the government's food security program.

He was joined by C/Chief Inspector Gary A. Garcia, IPPF Superintendent; Director Gerald Glen F. Panganiban of the Bureau of Plant Industry and concurrent program director of the High-Value Crops Development Program and National Urban Peri-Urban Agriculture Program; Puerto Princesa City Agriculturist Melissa Macasaet, among others.