Trap banana

THIS IS a fact: The banana export industry thrived in the past 44 years on its own. But now, all of a sudden, the industry is facing this wicked threat called “government.”

Imperiled are its yearly export of more than $1 billion, plus some P130 billion in direct investments by various groups that, ironically, started out as small enterprises.

Precisely because banana growing has always been labor intensive, the industry today directly employs about half a million rural workers who, themselves, have also become entrepreneurs. Really, the banana export industry must fight back.

You see, some top banana in the House of Representatives, somebody called Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat, who represents Ifugao province—which hardly has any banana plantation—filed House Bill 5161 to regulate the entire banana industry.

His target seemed to be agribusiness venture agreements (AVAs), which was a result of the discredited CARP, the comprehensive agrarian reform program.

In a way, AVAs replaced the CARP model of fragmenting the plantations and distributing small pieces of land to the workers. With the AVAs, the workers themselves became businessmen.

But the proposed law, HB 5161, would impose a new rule on the AVAs, but only exclusively in the banana industry. After all these years of successful operations, all the AVAs would have to undergo a “review” to be done by the government.

In other words, the bill would require the entire industry to seek government “approval” for the AVAs, once again, after years of successful operations.

Or else … well, the proposed law threatened to inflict upon the banana industry a wholesale voiding of the AVAs.

The bill seemed to be a trap for the banana industry. Bet on it—those hardworking banana people would not take such a threat sitting down.

From what I gathered, the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) already unleashed a full force lobby to fight HB 5161.

Under what it called Plan A, the association concentrated on the most influential Cabinet members of our leader Benigno Simeon, sending them a comprehensive “white paper” that delved into the issues facing the industry, including the Baguilat bill.

HB 5161, according to the paper, was “just one of a series of policy lobbying orchestrated by militant groups to sustain their protests against the government for whatever ground they deem reasonable.”

From what I learned, among the latest recipients of the PBGEA white paper were Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes, Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo, and Interior and Local Governments Secretary Manuel A. Roxas II, who happened to be the presumptive presidential candidate of the Aquino (Part II) administration in 2016.

Earlier, the association brought up the issue to other Cabinet members, such as the heads of DSWD and DOLE.

In Congress, the main targets were Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte.

Also receiving the industry paper were the chairs of rather influential Senate committees—agriculture and food, agrarian reform, local governments, national defense and security, trade, commerce and entrepreneurship, economic affairs, and labor employment and human development.

Eight committees in the House were also considered “allies” by the banana industry lobby—labor and employment, Mindanao affairs, rural development, economic affairs, trade and industry, agriculture and food, poverty alleviation and ad hoc committee on the Bangsa Moro Basic Law.

Above all, however, PBGEA seemed to be working on the Neda, particularly its director general Arsenio M. Balisacan, as the association raised the issue to the Neda regional directors in the areas of the banana industry.

Possibly joining the lobby would be influential business organizations like the Management Association of the Philippines, Economic Confederation of the Philippines, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Philippine Export Confederation.

Based on the white paper, the association seemed to be harping on the connection between so-called party lists and some militant groups, claiming that the banana industry already became the target of attacks from those groups.

PBGEA also explained in the paper that the banana industry was the first agricultural sector in Mindanao that submitted itself to the CARP—voluntarily.

Thus, today, even with CARP, banana plantations could still rely on cooperatives of more than 300,000 CARP beneficiaries for their export production.

Now, with the banana export industry—plus $1 billion in dollar earnings, P150 billion in investments, and 500,000 jobs—being threatened by HB 5161, the industry seemed to be ready to turn the tables around on the government.

As I said, the industry thrived on its own for about 44 years, with virtually no assistance from the government. Instead of messing up the industry with new rules, PGBEA suggested that, perhaps, the industry could use a little government help.

For instance, the government could provide small banana growers and farmers with easy access to microfinancing, thus helping them increase their equity and capital. The government could even use its awesome resources (with its P2 trillion budget in 2015) to put up research facilities for the banana export industry.

The PBGEA noted that the industry was already reeling from natural calamities, such as the strong typhoons in the past years and the current drought brought on by the El Niño phenomenon.

In a way, the banana industry felt that it could surely use a breather from more government impositions.