Labor group seeks help for all agri workers

A national labor group has urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) to realign P45 billion of its P51-billion budget to provide cash assistance not just to rice farmers but to other agricultural workers who are also suffering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) chairperson Antonio Flores said that of the DA’s P3-billion funding for its social amelioration program for farmers and fisherfolk, none has been given to agricultural workers. The response was concentrated on the rice farmers. The rice industry employs roughly 21 percent of the agriculture sector’s workers.

“Even the actual distribution of social amelioration was only provided to a limited number of rice farmers. About 1.2 million rice farmers were reportedly given P5,000 cash subsidy under the DA’s program when there are 9.7 million farmers, agriculture laborers and fisherfolk that still need to be reached,” he said.

The DA’s ‘Plant, Plant, Plant’ program was already approved by the government and received a funding amounting to P51 billion. UMA said

This could be realigned to provide cash aid and production assistance since most workers in the industry are in dire need of immediate aid.

The group said that many agricultural workers had also been excluded from the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s social amelioration program, especially those in the sugar industry as they are considered informal workers.

There are 700,000 sugar laborers nationwide. Other workers include those in banana, pineapple, and oil palm plantations.

“If there’s any sincerity in this supposed Covid-19 response program, UMA demands urgent and ample subsidy and cash assistance for all the forces of production in the countryside from farmers and agricultural workers to fisherfolks,” the group said. INQ