Gov’t pulls plug on Land Bank subsidiary formed for agri inputs
The Governance Commission for Government Owned or Controlled Corporations (GCG) has deactivated the Land Bank of the Philippines’ subsidiary, Masaganang Sakahan Inc. (MSI), while awaiting orders from President Rodrigo Duterte to finally abolish the state-run firm.
The interim deactivation of MSI was approved by GCG Chair Samuel G. Dagpin Jr., Commissioners Michael P. Cloribel and Marites C. Doral, and ex-officio Land Bank officers Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III and Budget Secretary Wendel E. Avisado last Feb. 20.
MSI’s deactivation meant it cannot enter into any contracts or transactions anymore or receive any corporate operating budget from the national government.
Mandated by Republic Act No. 10149, or GOCC Governance Act of 2011, MSI was “deemed under evaluation for formal abolition.”
The GCG had already recommended MSI’s abolition to the Office of the President in 2017.
In 2017, the GCG deemed MSI was just a duplication of other government agencies and was “not producing the desired outcomes.”
MSI, the GCG continued, is “no longer achieving the objectives and purposes for which it was designed.”
“MSI’s functions and purposes are no longer relevant,” the GCG added. MSI, it said, is “no longer consistent with the national development policy of the state and its activity is best carried out by the private sector.”
The GCG also found MSI to “not cost-efficient and does not generate the level of social, physical and economic returns vis-a-vis the resource inputs.”
Land Bank’s governing board, chaired by Dominguez, in 2019 passed a resolution rendering MSI inactive or nonoperational.
MSI was established in 1974 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Land Bank. Its main purpose was acquire, operate, maintain, lease, sell and deal in agricultural equipment and farm machinery, implements and tools. MSI was supposed to make these available to farmers and land reform beneficiaries.
