Biyaheng Totoo: In Antique, farmers endure fruitless wait for anti-hunger projects

Three years ago, the Department of Agriculture was granted a P47 million budget for hunger mitigation programs, including one program called the "Gulayan ng Masa" which aimed to provide poor farmers with free seeds. Yet a Commission on Audit report said that around P14 million of the budget was used instead to cover office operating expenses of the Bureau of Plant Industry. For the premiere episode of "Biyaheng Totoo," GMA reporter Joseph Morong traveled to Antique province, where he met poor farmers who struggle to make a living by planting rice and vegetables. Government assistance could do much to improve the lives of these farmers and their families — but is the government putting its money into the right programs? "Biyaheng Totoo" is a six-part series that follows GMA News reporters as they travel around the Philippines documenting how ordinary people have been affected by specific cases of misgovernance. -GMANews.TV View Joseph Morong's photos from the Biyaheng Totoo Antique episode here: View in fullscreen. Photographs by Joseph Morong and Melchor Quintos. Captions by Pia Faustino and Joseph Morong.