A re-engineered council, the hope for agriculture

In the midst of our agriculture decline and a looming food crisis, a recently re-engineered council offers hope for a better future.

I am referring to the public-private Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF). This game changer provides the private sector a meaningful participation in agriculture governance. This has been sorely missing in the past and is largely responsible for where our industry is today.

PCAF’s key mandates are: (1) “To establish a nationwide network of agricultural and fisheries councils to serve as the forum for consultative and continuing discussions within the agriculture and fisheries sectors; and (2) “to assist the [Department of Agriculture or DA] in the broad-based monitoring and coordination of the agriculture and fisheries modernization process.”

The DA is now largely managed by Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban. He has admirably and humbly agreed to serve the DA again after serving previously as agriculture secretary. He encouraged PCAF Executive Director Nestor Domenden and acting Deputy Director Juliet Opulencia to allow PCAF take on new initiatives.

In the recent past, the private sector generally just followed the DA’s directions. They have refrained from making suggestions because of their past sad experiences. For example, the PCAF international trade committee, which would have given them the opportunity to make amendments to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), was abolished. As a result, RCEP is now harmful to agriculture.

In addition, the private sector monitoring of the DA budget, as recommended by Alyansa Agrikultura, was likewise stopped. We all know by now that this resulted in the unliquidated and inexplicable expenses worth P22 billion in the 2020 budget of the DA.

Combating corruption

This can be done effectively by the local Agriculture and Fisheries Councils (AFCs) in provinces and municipalities. Recent events, however, have stopped these councils from doing their tasks.

Prior to the budget monitoring committee’s creation, the DA regional directors were not required to give the AFCs the complete list of DA-funded projects in their respective areas. When the list was provided upon the budget committee’s creation, corruption was discovered mainly in the projects missing in the list. When the list was withdrawn and private monitoring stopped, corruption again increased.

Last Nov. 25, the DA gave an order to resume this budget monitoring. This is specially important because the DA budget is being increased by 40 percent to P164 billion for 2023, an amount that should not be lost to corruption and waste.

Another significant development is that the private sector is now communicating their concerns with top officials of other departments.

Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual personally met with them and agreed to advocate the creation of a public-private oversight antismuggling committee. This will meet with the Bureau of Customs monthly and report directly to the President.

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, meanwhile, personally wrote that he would not allow conditionalities on foreign grants or loans that would be inconsistent with our agriculture policies.

In an out-of-town meeting last Dec. 15 to Dec. 16, the re-engineering of PCAF resulted in transforming the private sector role from an inferior, passive position to an equal, active one. Key agreements include: (1) The private sector will be partners of the DA in governance, and will not just follow DA initiatives; (2) they will chair the agriculture subsector road map implementation teams with the DA as cochair; (3) they will oversee private sector DA budget monitoring, also at the provincial and municipal levels; and (4) they will recommend adjustments in DA programs and budget use to best meet the changing actual needs of farmers, fisherfolk and agriculture stakeholders.

With this re-engineered PCAF, there is indeed hope for a better agriculture future.

The author is Agriwatch chair, former secretary of presidential flagship programs and projects, and former undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry. Contact is [email protected].