Senator Cynthia Villar uses opportunities to travel abroad and visit other communities, cities, and companies to study their best practices and innovative ideas. She applies these learnings to help draft legislation and implement projects in the Philippines. For example, when drafting a bill to encourage agricultural tourism, she visited farm tourism sites in France, Taiwan, and Thailand to see their operations. This exposure helped inform the Farm Tourism Development Act of 2016, which she authored and sponsored. This law has significantly boosted agriculture-related tourism in the Philippines by allowing farmers to convert their farms into tourist destinations and earn additional income.

1. Villar Recalls Best Practices, Learnings from Visit to
Other Countries
Best Practices, Innovative Ideas from Other Countries Can Make Philippine
Agriculture More Progressive and Innovative, SaysVillar
Senator Cynthia Villar has maximized the benefits from her travels in various parts
of the world to better perform her mandate, duties and responsibilities as a legislator
and as the managing director of her family’s foundation, the Villar Social Institute of
Poverty Alleviation and Governance or Villar SIPAG.
“As a public official, I get invitations to attend events and to visit cities or projects
abroad. I use these travel opportunities to study the best practices of communities,
cities and even companies abroad. This helps me in putting together bills or
legislations and implementing projects for my advocacies,” said Villar. These
educational tours with local government officials is not financed by government but
by Senator Villar’s private money.
FarmTourismDevelopment (France, Taiwan & Thailand/2015 & 2016)
For instance in 2015, while in the process of drafting a bill to encourage agricultural
tourism in the country, Senator Villar visited not only farm tourism sites in various
parts of the Philippines, but she also made it a point to check out those in other
countries such as in Taiwan, Thailand and France. Villar’s first visit in France in July
2015 was upon the invitation of an association of farm schools there. The senator
was surprised to know that there are thousands of farm schools in the First World
country.
Villar is the primary author and sponsor of Republic Act No. 10816 or the Farm
Tourism Development Act of 2016 that is widely praised and credited for boosting
agriculture-related tourism in the country. The said law paved the way for an
increasing number of farmers, farm owners and farming communities to enjoy the
benefits of converting their farms into farm tourism sites. They have multiplied their
earning sources—from their crops, from the tourists’ who visit their farm and buy
products as well as from the tuition fees of the trainees in their farm schools.
“In the last four years, since the law was passed, there has been a huge increase in
farm tourism destinations all over the country. We published a book (Directory of
Farm Schools, Tourist Farms and Learning Sites in the Philippines), from a list of
only 386 in its first edition, the number has reached over 2,367in the fifth edition and
many are not listed yet,” said Villar.
Among the sites she visited in Taiwan are the Golden Town Leisure Farm Zone, Young
Lake Resort, Da-hu Strawberry Winery, Flying Cow Ranch, Taomi Eco-Village, Paper
Dome, and Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation.