DILIMAN, Quezon City—Food security is everyone’s concern, including those deprived of liberty. This year, a new partnership between the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) will help address this inclusively.
The BJMP and ATI just strengthened their ties through a Memorandum of Agreement that warrants BJMP’s vital role in broadening the Urban Agriculture Program (UAP) at the National Capital Region (NCR).
Extension Programs and Development Section Chief Ms. Nemielynn P. Pangilinan of ATI, welcomed the partners on behalf of the Directorate. Pangilinan expressed her excitement, with high hopes for the BJMP to become one of ATI-UAP’s strongholds in sustaining a productive, and prosperous city-based community gardening; as well as in influencing the neighboring communities to take action towards an empowered, and localized food system in the country.
Mr. Jomar O. Tabor, ATI Central Office UAP Focal Person delivered the program brief with the BJMP officials, explaining pertinent components of the UAP, and their current developments. Tabor also encouraged the BJMP to forge collaboration with the existing ATI UAP sites in Quezon City, and Caloocan for benchmarking, knowledge-sharing, and to ensure delivery of consistent, and impactful program outputs.
On behalf of BJMP Jail Director Allan S. Iral, CESE, Jail Senior Superintendent Flory F. Sanchez, PhD delivered a message of commitment to the initiatives and sub-projects under the UAP. “We are opening the doors of our facilities to the Department of Agriculture-ATI [in realizing] programs that will cater to our PDL (Persons Deprived of Liberty),” says Sanchez. The BJMP is optimistic that this partnership will pave the way for re-orienting the directions and roles of the PDL in the society, in terms of nation-building, and ensuring food security.
Accounting for the positive contributions of the ATI’s UAP to the Department of Agiruclure’s Plant, Plant, Plant Program, and in pushing for a harmonized agricultural development guided by the One DA Reform Agenda, the Institute commits to continuously campaign for urban agriculture through alliance-building, networking, and fostering better representations from various sectors.
For BJMP, the turnover of starting kits and other tools shall be facilitated alongside the garden launch within the first semester of the year.
The MOA-signing was held at the Mess Hall of ATI Central Office last January 11, 2022.
