Three of the country’s richest businessmen have pledged to get the rice supply for their workers from local farmers in support of the Department of Agriculture’s program.

Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol convinced Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala of the Ayala Group, Manny V. Pangilinan of the MVP Group of Companies and Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corporation to make the contribution to the agriculture sector during a chance encounter at the state banquet hosted for Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Malacanang last Thursday (January 12).

“I did not let go of the chance of talking to the three business tycoons and presented to them the DA’s program of finding market for the Filipino farmers’ produce,” Piñol wrote on Facebook.

“All three of them pledged to buy the requirements for the monthly rice allowances of their corporations directly from rice farmers cooperatives and associations,” he said.