PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. has come up short of solid solutions to address problems besetting the agricultural sector a year after he appointed himself as secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA), Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III said yesterday.
Pimentel made the assessment as Marcos marks his first year in office on June 30.
“PBBM (President Bongbong Marcos) has not made headway in our problems in the agricultural sector. In sugar matters alone, his administration has had two controversies in less than one year in office,” Pimentel said in a Viber message to the media.
In August last year, the Marcos administration’s planned sugar importation under Sugar Order No. 4, which directs the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar, became controversial after the Sugar Regulatory Board convened and issued a resolution without the approval of Marcos.
Signatories to the questionable order were former Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian, former SRA Administrator Hermenigildo Serafica, and former board member Roland Beltran. The three have since quit from their posts.
Again in February this year, Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros disclosed that the government allowed the entry of 440,000 MT of sugar ahead of the issuance of Sugar Order No. 6, with contracts to import awarded to three allegedly “favored” companies — All Asian Countertrade, Sucden Philippines Inc., and Edison Lee Marketing Corporation.
Hontiveros said the sugar importation was given the green light by DA Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, who has said that he acted on the order of Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.
Bersamin said a sugar order is not a requirement for government to import sugar.
The two messy sugar importations were investigated by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
Pimentel said Marcos has also failed to stop agricultural smuggling in the country, and was not able to lower the prices of agricultural products, including onion whose prices skyrocketed to more than P700 per kilo last December.
“Smuggling is still rampant. Prices of onions and other basic food items are still very expensive and beyond the means of ordinary citizens. Inflation is still a problem,” he said.
Pimentel said Marcos should take the cue and appoint a full-time agriculture secretary who can focus on the job.
“I believe PBBM can be greatly helped by the appointment of a regular secretary of the Department of Agriculture,” he said.
In an earlier interview, Marcos said he will remain as DA secretary until after the pressing issues on the agricultural sector have been completely addressed.
Marcos also bared that his Cabinet does not want him to appoint a new secretary for now amid his relentless efforts to make “some very important structural changes” in the DA.
Hontiveros said Marcos failed to come up with measures to alleviate the plight of farmers.
In an interview in Tabaco City, Albay, Hontiveros said help from the national government should be felt by the farmers, at least in terms of selling their produce, so they can earn more.
She said Marcos, as agriculture secretary, should find ways on how farmers can directly sell their crops to marketplaces or supermarkets, without a middleman.
“Middlemen ang nagdidikta ng presyo sa halip na ang magsasaka mismo ang mag-deliver sa palengke o supermart, or ‘yung supermart o palengke ang bumili diretso para ‘yung kita ay mapunta sa magsasaka at middle men ang nakikihati pa (Middlemen dictate the prices of agricultural products, instead of the farmers. Farmers should be the ones selling their produce directly to markets or supermarkets, or the markets and supermarkets buying directly from the farmers, thus doing away with middlemen),” Hontiveros said.
