SINAG suggests Imee Marcos be made agriculture secretary

Farmers group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) suggested that Senator Imee Marcos be made Department of Agriculture (DA) secretary.

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who concurrently sits as Agriculture Secretary, is the senator's brother.

“Sa tingin natin... si Senator Imee ang pwedeng umupo as secretary of agriculture. And at least yung grupong SINAG nakita talaga yung hard work na pagtulong niya sa agricultural sector,” SINAG president Rosendo So said in Mav Gonzales’ “24 Oras” report on Saturday.

(In our view, Senator Imee can sit as agriculture secretary. And, as far as Sinag is concerned, we've seen the hard work she's put in helping the agriculture sector.)

According to the report, the senator laughed off the suggestion.

However, she added that the investigation on agricultural smuggling needed to continue.

“2016 pa yung batas ng agricultural large scale smuggling sa awa ng Diyos wala pang nakakasuhan at tuloy tuloy na nakukulong. Sana matapos na,” said Sen. Marcos.

(The law on large scale agriculture smuggling has been around since 2016. By God's mercy no one has charged and sent to jail. Hopefully this will end.)

The President said earlier that an agriculture expert would replace him as the DA secretary.

Meanwhile, onions were being used as payment for items that cost P88 and below in a store in Quezon City.

“Wala po kaming pera pambili ng ano eh. Kaya dito po malaking tulong po ito,” a consumer said.

(We don't have the money to make purchases, so we are here. It's a big help.)

The collected onions would be brought to a community pantry.

At the Kamuning Market, the price of red onions was P220/kilo, while white onions was at P200/kilo.

Meanwhile, onion farmers were dismayed that the DA did not consult them on the importation of onions.

“Pinapatay kaming local farmers. Supposed to be, kausapin mo muna kami bago sila mag-apruba ng ano ‘yan, import permit,” Onion Farmers Philippines administrator James Ramos said.

(They're killing local farmers. Supposed to be, they should first talk to us before approving import permits.)

DA Assistant Secretary and Deputy Spokesperson Rex Estoperez, however, refuted this claim.

“Meron naman tayong kinonsulta na mga magsasaka. Hindi naman natin pinapabayaan sila. Unang-una natin priority ang ating mga magsasaka. Pangalawa po ay dapat din nating matugunan ang hinaing ng ating mga consumer,” Estoperez said.

(We did consult with farmers. We aren't leaving them to fend for themselves. Our first priority are the farmers. Second is we need to repond to the appeals of consumers.)

The DA said only a fraction of the more than 21,000 metric tons of onions that were authorized for importation had arrived in the country.

In January, the DA gave the green light for the importation of 21,060 metric tons of onions to fill a supply gap and arrest the continuous spike in the price of the commodity in the market. — Richa Noriega/DVM, GMA Integrated News