Ever since the Alyansa Agrikultura, with its 42 member federations and organizations, was organized eight years ago, it has fought for the welfare of small farmers and fisherfolk.
One of its objectives is to campaign for an agriculture budget that is large enough and transparent, supported by small farmers and fisherfolk.
Thanks to the leadership of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, this objective has been largely fulfilled.
Last August 10, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) presented the proposed 2012 budget to the private sector.
According to the budget proposal, the DA stands to get the highest budget increase in 2012 from 2011 among the large government agencies.
This is a welcome change.
Almost a year ago, the DBM proposed for this year an 11 percent national budget increase, but an 8-percent decrease for the DA. Thus, the Alyansa conducted a campaign to increase the DA’s 2012 budget.
Last February 10 to 11, during the Agriculture and Fisheries 2025 (AF 2025) Conference jointly convened by Secretary Alcala, Congressional Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization (COCAFM) cochairs Sen. Francis Pangilinan and Rep. Mark Mendoza, and other private sector leaders, the Alyansa argued strongly for a much larger DA budget.
Last May 25, during the follow-up AF 2025 Conference, the Alyansa supported this direction with detailed budget item recommendations for 2012.
Thus today, instead of an 8-percent decrease in DA’s budget, we now have a proposal that calls for a 54-percent increase in the DA budget. It is now up to COCAFM cochairs and AF 2025 coconvenors Pangilinan and Mendoza to convince their colleagues to approve this increase.
In the past, small farmers and fisherfolk complained that much of the budget due them went to the larger and richer sectors, which did not need this budget as badly.
The proposed 2012 budget has fortunately documented praiseworthy conditions for the release of certain funds.
An example is the following budget provision: “Priority to small farmers and fisherfolk … The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources shall (i) prioritize the locations where there is a large number of subsistence fisherfolk…; and (ii) the provinces or regions where the absolute number of fisherfolk and the incidence of poverty are high.”
We recommend that these interventions should be effective with a good cost-benefit ratio, and not be mere dole-outs.
But perhaps the most important budget feature of this proposed budget is transparency. In the past, because of its absence, the DA budget use was riddled with corruption. What use is a large amount with an avowed intention to help small farmers and fisherfolk if the resources are lost to corruption because of lack of transparency?
In our June 10 commentary called “Irrigation Watch,” we reported that the Alyansa had teamed up with the Management Association of the Philippines Agri-Business and Countryside Development Foundation (MAP ABCDF) and the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Industries to establish a portal in the MAP-ABCDF website (https://www.map-abcdf.com.ph/project.php). This would contain irrigation project information made available to anyone interested in preventing corruption.
To its credit, the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) has now established such an information source as a new addition to its website.
To ensure that this feature is strengthened and not eliminated, the following is made a condition for NIA budget use: “The administration of NIA shall be responsible for ensuring that the list of irrigation projects with the corresponding budgetary allocation, community of farmer beneficiaries… and project evaluation and/or assessment reports are posted on the official website of the NIA.”
The remaining challenges are for Congress to approve it, and the DA to spend the budget wisely.
(The author is chairman of Agriwatch, former secretary for presidential flagship programs and projects, and former undersecretary for agriculture, and trade and industry. For inquiries and suggestions, e-mail agriwatch_phil@yahoo.com or telefax (02)85221.)
Top 5 Departments, FY 2011-12
2011 Program Levels 2012 Proposed Levels Growth Rate
DepEd
(including EFF)* 207.3 238.8 15.2%
DPWH 110.6 125.5 13.5%
DND* 104.7 107.9 3.1%
DILG* 88.1 101.4 15.1%
DA 35.2 54.1 53.6%
TOTAL 1,645.0B 1816.0B 10.4%