The backbone of the Philippine economy has collapsed. The Department of Agriculture has not come out with doable solutions from the start of the Marcos administration. There was euphoria from the farmers and fishermen when Pres. Bongbong himself took over the helm of the DA but the jubilant atmosphere died down and today the it is one of despair.
The reason behind the waning trust and confidence is not without reason. The late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. left a priceless legacy – a template of rice productivity and infrastructures that made Philippines a rice exporting country and farmers enjoying an unprecedented bonanza.
What boggles the mind is why Marcos Jr. refused to visit the template his father crafted to increase rice productivity. While much of the vital infrastructures were indeed mothballed by the Cory Aquino administration there is absolutely no reason why President BBM cannot invest money to revive and refurbish the National Food Authority and the Food Terminal Incorporated (FTI) a major component agency of NFA.
Marcos departure from bilateral talks and his confrontational policy with China led to the loss of the prime consumer market of Philippines cavendish bananas. We also lost the supply of cheap fertlizer from China which is the biggest producer of fertilizer in the world. Nobody from the DA seemed to know that the price of fertilizer is one of the biggest burden to farmers. China was prepared to supply Philippines with a much cheaper price under a government -to-government deal but no one seems to be interested.
The DA too the easy route: import rice. To make it easier still the government radically reduced the tariff down from 45% to only 15%. Having done that, they flooded the markets with imported rice. The price of rice which had almost breached ₱60 per kilo remained in the vicinity of ₱50-₱55 per kilo, too far from the election promiseó of ₱20. The importers had their bonanza from the tariff reduction. They too hoarded their imported rice to maintain the price at ₱50 plus.
To justify the incessant importation of rice, the DA blamed El Nino and La Nina.
This government had slowly sentenced the farmers to a slow death. While they granted the importers with an all-time-low tariff on rice, the DA through NFA, as it was done before, cease to buy palay from farmers at incentivise prices, which in the past, motivated farmers to produce more.
This government can spend billions of pesos on “ayuda” but refuse to spend a single centavo to rehabilitate irrigation systems.
So now we are in the brink. Congress provided billions of money on AKAP to sustain the needs of the mendicant populations they hope to keep until the next Presidential elections in 2028. But the national treasury is profusely haemorrhaging. They resorted to juggling funds under the cover of QuadCom’s unending investigations of Past President Rodrigo Duterte and VP Sara which they conspired to impeach.
People will go out to the streets led by Iglesia Ni Cristo this time “in support “ of President Marcos directive not to impeach VP Sara as it is a waste of time. There is no more Cardinal Sin in the Catholic Church, not a whimper of protest can be heard in prayers. This time moreover, INC will take a lead role to prove rallies can be done.
But remember this date for sooner or later the path of the procession of the Image of the Nazarene will soon be full of people anew calling for change.
January 13, 2025 is the start of an awakening of Filipinos who had been hypnotized by promises and dirty money derived from unprecedented corruption. Thereafter people from all over the country no longer divided by religious beliefs. Christians, Muslims and Lumads have actually come together, now for a peaceful rally by INC, but tomorrow will entirely be a different story if the House of Romualdez will defy the Palace order.
