Cayetano wants more pork for Cebu

"This is the pork (barrel) that we must develop!" Senator Alan Cayetano half-jokingly said during his Listening Tour in Carcar, Cebu last weekend.

Pork barrel is the term used for the Countrywide Development Fund that is the budget of congressmen that has been subject of controversy for a lack of check and balance. The senator, however, was not talking about congressmen's pork barrel but describing the fatty fried pork rind delicacy of Carcar that is in the shape of a barrel called chicharon.

Cayetano pushed for the development of the chicharon industry in Carcar as this would improve the general income of the community and correspondingly increase family income of locals and their families.

The senator is on a Listening Tour, having discussions with various sectors on how to achieve PTK (Presyo, Trabaho, Kita) or lower prices, more jobs and greater income for all Filipino families.

To totally immerse himself in the life of employees of a small industry, Cayetano himself took a stab at making chicharon. "It's really a simple process that can be developed to become competitive not only in Cebu or the Philippines but for a global market," Cayetano said.

"I really believe that developing small industries like this will greatly improve our employment levels. And when the industry develops and demand and sales increase, this will result in higher income for both employers and laborers," Cayetano said.

Cayetano lamented that sometimes SMEs just need support in terms of acquiring capital and repeated his proposal for a second-tier Conditional Cash Transfer (CCII) directed at helping SMEs. The proposal seeks to allocate P8 Billion for capital for qualified SME beneficiaries.

Cayetano believes that supporting small local industries is a key to poverty alleviation. "If we focus on these small industries, I believe that Filipinos will sooner feel the trickle down effect of the growth of our economy," Cayetano said.