In the past month of April, were we Filipinos maximizingthe values of native foods by capitalizingon the mandate of Executive Order 469 signed in 2018 by President Rodrigo Duterte for celebrating Filipino Food Month (FFM)? My answer: Neither maximizing, nor even optimizing.
EO 469 is both patriotic and patronic – if I may coin a word – as at the same time it should encourage both the growing of local foods and the buying and eating of them.
PH native food is good – what about the price?
I have been reading April news stories and I note that not one mentioned the necessary role of restaurants, diners, fast-food joints and eateries in offering special reduced prices for their fares of Filipino dishes. Why not?
This is from me, one who has a 2-year experience being a copywriter for now historical advertising genius Tony Zorilla with his prestigious Pacifica Publicity Bureau in Makati. (For Pacifica, I invented the cashphrase, “Cash Pagbukás.”) In order to “sell” the commercial values of EO 469, I would have convinced quite a few representatives of farmers, food joints and hard-to-please diners to a conference and discussed how each sector could contribute to the celebration of FFM 2021.
The cashphrase could have been: “Better Food, Better Prices!”
Like: Restaurants, dine-ins, fast-foods and eateries could have been encouraged to offer high-quality cooked native foods with reduced prices – then Pinoys could have had a first and/or another taste of their native dishes. And because of restrictions, these could have been available via home deliveries.
And Filipino Pride should have been injected into FFM 2021.
Better sharing on Facebook 14 April 2021: SMH Toreno of DA Western Visayas says Regional Executive Director Remelyn R Recoter had “encouraged the public to consume indigenous food resources and products locally grown to help farmers face the adverse economic effects of the ongoing pandemic.” The title of the sharing was “’Patronize Local Food,’ Says DA Director” – which is to the point. But instead of pointing out the “adverse economic effects of the ongoing pandemic,” of which the customer cannot do anything, the story could have listed the delicious Filipino recipes in Western Visayas – the mere listing would have been sort of appetizing for Filipinos and foreigners alike!
Miss Remelyn says, “We aim to create awareness among Filipinos of our indigenous food and this will also be an avenue for our farmers to sell their products and for the consumers to patronize our local products.” Yes Ma’am! “Create awareness among Filipinos” – we cannot assume we Filipinos ourselves know the indigenous foods beyond our town or province!
She also says, “We have a long list of indigenous foods that provide trademark to Ilonggos, (Aklanons), and so forth such as the kadyos baboy langka, laswa, tinuom nga manok, inubaran nga manok, to name a few.” So, the news story should have shown photographs of these foods, briefly described, aimed at convincing customers to try any or all of them.
Yes, we needed a national commercial campaign for Filipino Food Month – Lost Opportunities!@517
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