Lacson-Sotto vow to buy 50% of farmers’ crops to boost agri sector

The tandem of Senator Panfilo Lacson and Senate President Vicente Sotto III said their administration would buy 50 percent of the local farmers’ produce to boost the agriculture sector and cut the inflation rate if elected as president and vice president in Eleksyon 2022.

This program was disclosed by Sotto during their weekly media conference on Thursday.

Sotto said that 40% of the Filipino labor force works in the agriculture sector and they contribute 20% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“Ang gross value ng agriculture natin in 2020, P1.78 trillion pero ang proposal namin kung lahat ng output ng mga magsasaka natin bibilhin ng gobyerno ang 50 percent at their price, farm gate price, aba iba yan, boosted ang agrikultura, boosted ang mga farms, pwedeng yumaman ang mga magasaka yaman in the sense na hindi na sila naghihirap,” Sotto said.

(The gross value of agriculture in 2020 is P1.78 trillion but our proposal is 50% of the output of our farmers will be procured by the government at their price, farm gate price. Our agriculture will be boosted. Our farmers won’t be struggling financially anymore.)

“Hindi mangyayari ngayon na less than eight percent ang binibili ng gobyerno tapos pagkatpos, they succumb to the prices of the traders at tsaka ng mga middlemen oh sinong kumikita edi ang mga middlemen pagadting sa palengke, mahal…Tingnan mo, ang laki ng impact sa inflation nito,” he added.

(Right now, the government is buying less than eight percent and the farmers succumb to the prices of the traders and the middlemen. Once the products reach the markets, the price is already high. That will not happen again….This will have a big impact on our inflation.)

Sotto said this program is already being implemented in Davao del Norte.

On the other hand, Lacson highlighted the need to plan the national budget wisely as he noted that the country has an average of P328.5 billion unused appropriation since 2010.

“Kailangan talag pagplanuhan nating mbuti bago natin ipasa ang ating budget. Otherwise, wala, viscious cycle…Alam mo ba, for the past 10 years, 2010 hanggang 2020 at least ‘yun ang alam na natin na natapos na budget, ang unused appropriation ng buong national budget average yearly 328.5 billion pesos. Imagine, ‘di mo nagamit ang P328 billion pesos mahigit,” Lacson said.

(We need to plan the budget wisely before we pass it. Otherwise, it will be a vicious cycle. Do you know that in the past 10 years, 2010 up to 2020, the average unused appropriation is at P328.5 billion pesos yearly. Imagine, you did not utilize more than P328 billion.)

“‘Yan ang lifeline ng ating ekonomiya. ‘Pag ‘yan ay pinabayaan natin, wala, tigok tayong lahat,” he added.

(The budget is the lifeline of our economy. If that is not planned well, our country will die.) -NB, GMA News