Assuming the political leadership of the province under the Team Cagayan banner, Congressman-elect Jack Enrile (NPC, 1st District) now has his sight on to help improve the country’s investment climate.

His father, 86-year-old Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, the province political kingpin who was reelected, said he will now just play a supporting role to his son and the other winners under the Team Cagayan, a coalition of different political parties.

“Jack can count anytime on our full and unwavering support,” reelected Cagayan Gov. Alvaro Antonio, who also spoke for the others, said.

Team Cagayan’s winning candidates aside from Antonio are Vice Gov. Odi Fausto, Rep. Randy Ting of the 3rd district, reelectonist Rep. Florencio Vargas of the 2nd district and 25 of the 29 mayors of the province including the mayor of Tuguegarao City, Delfin Ting.

“One of our priorities is to maintain Cagayan’s lead as the country’s largest rice producers along with the province of Isabela, one of the largest sources of corn and a major source of fish, livestock and poultry.”

“Rice and corn crops, in fact, cover 90 percent of Cagayan’s farmland,” Jack said, adding that it has enough area for growth. With only 5 percent of the country’s population, Cagayan has 9,295 square kilometers of land area and of this, 400,000 hectares are idle agricultural land that is open for commercial farming.

“We have 300 kilometers of coastline that I believe is the longest in the Philippines, running from Santa Praxedes on the boundary with Ilocos Norte, across northern Luzon, down the Pacific coast to Baguio Point,” he said, adding that the potential for fisheries and agro-industrial exploration is great.

Jack Enrile said that in Sta. Ana town, home of the now world-famous Port Irene, the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) and where the two great oceans (Pacific and China Sea) merge, “we intend to set up various types of industries, including shipbuilding, and make Cagayan the north’s gateway and entry of almost half of the world’s population, including North America, East Asia and the Pacific countries.”

“There’s a huge market out there with practically unlimited economic opportunities for our people,” he said.

“Our approach is both micro- and macroeconomics, and we have built schools and universities to educate and train our people in science and technology, in the new methods of farming and in small-business operations to make them economically resilient and highly productive,” Enrile said.