Poe: It's time to have a DA chief who would take on agriculture crisis

During the Senate Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform  Committee hearing on Monday, Senator Grace Poe joined the call of other senators for President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. to name an Agriculture Secretary to address the problems in the sector.

"Panahon na rin siguro talaga na magkaroon ng DA Secretary na aako sa kawalan ng aksyon sa agricultural crisis na ito," said Poe. "Asukal noong una, sibuyas naman ngayon. Ihi-hearing ata natin lahat ng kailangan sa kusina. Iba-ibang ingredients pero pare-parehong kwento sa price gouging, supply manipulation at smuggling. Wala tayong mahiwa pero iyak pa rin tayo nang iyak."

(First, it was sugar, now it's onions. Are we going to have hearings on everything used in the kitchen? Different ingredients but the same story of price gouging, supply manipulation, and smuggling. We have nothing to slice but we keep crying.)

In June 2022, Marcos said he would take the agriculture portfolio to make it clear to everyone that, not only was his government prioritizing the sector, "but also as a practical matter so that things move quickly because the events of the global economy are moving very quickly." 

Marcos said his administration would focus and prepare for the then looming increase of food prices as a result of "outside forces" affecting the food supply.

Marcos also said he wanted to increase food production and restructure the Agriculture Department.

The President added that he would only leave his post as Agriculture chief when structural changes to the department had been made. 

"There are things that a President can do that a secretary cannot... The problems are so difficult that it will take a president to change and turn it around," said Marcos.

However, opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros prodded the President to reconsider his position and appoint a competent and full-time Agriculture Secretary who would end the controversies within the department and address the food crisis. 

Similarly, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III said that Marcos could still focus on the problems hounding the country's agriculture sector even if he appointed a full-time Agriculture Department Secretary. 

"Sana mag-appoint na siya ng full-time secretary sa agriculture. Pero ang akin ngang point is nothing prevents the President from focusing still on agriculture pero meron ka nang napiling secretary na katulong mo 'di ba? Eh di magtulungan kayo," said Pimentel.

He suggested that Marcos should choose someone familiar with agricultural issues and someone who had the heart to solve the problems of ordinary Filipinos, such as access to food and the prices of agricultural products.

Border protocols

Farmers organization Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) exhorted concerned agencies to put in place a strict border quarantine and inspection control to curb smuggling and entry of diseases affecting farms.

"As long as we do not have first border quarantine and inspection protocols, smuggling and the prevalence of imported animal diseases like the African Swine Fever (ASF) and Avian Influenza (AI/bird flu) will continue to cripple the local agriculture sector," SINAG president Rosendo So said in a statement.

"DA’s inability til this day of a functioning first border quarantine inspection regime is the single reason for the outbreak of AI and of the ASF," he added.

So said the AI that hit Pampanga, Bulacan and some egg producing areas in Southern Luzon was a factor to the surge in egg prices.

"But the bigger concern is the continued inability of the Department of Agriculture to correct the huge gap between farmgate prices and retail prices of egg —a similar situation besetting the country with the spiraling onion prices," he said.

The SINAG leader said that farms are sing their own resources to beef up biosecurity measures "with no help from government."— DVM, GMA Integrated News