Productive meeting with the President

The elected private sector leaders of the public-private Philippine Council of Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF) value the results of a crucial meeting with President Marcos last July 10. This should be done again in October.

A short background on PCAF, according to its website: “PCAF is an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA) which facilitates broad-based participation processes in the agriculture and fisheries sector. It provides quality services to a nationwide network of private sector-led consultative councils at the national, regional and local levels for the formulation of sound policies, plans and programs.”

During the meeting, PCAF was represented by the heads of the Regional Agriculture and Fisheries Councils and the sectoral committees. The DA appointed Elias Jose Inciong and Francisco Hernandez to speak on behalf of the heads.

As the chair of the international trade committee, I was privileged to witness first-hand the political will and decisive action of the President. We will cover here three critical issues that were discussed.

On water

With the onset of El Niño, water is a top agriculture priority. But water governance has long been a major concern.

In two Asian Development Bank studies covering 48 countries, we ranked at the bottom third in 2013 and 2016. On a 5-point scale, with 5 being the highest, we scored a 1 in terms of water governance in 2013, but improved to a 2 in 2016.

With the formation of a public-private water task force in 2018 where I was the secretary general, we increased this to a 3 in 2020. But much more has to be done.

At the July 10 meeting, the PCAF leaders asked for better coordination among government agencies and significant improvement in the water impoundment and irrigation systems.

The President said he had created last April 27 a Water Resources Management Office that would soon roll out a systematic and coordinated plan. In addition, he tapped the expertise of Rogelio Singson, former Department of Public Works and Highways secretary under the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III. This demonstrated that the President chooses the best, regardless of past political affiliation, which the PCAF leaders appreciated.

On rice

Noting a pattern of reducing tariffs without the corresponding support measures and trade remedies, the participants asked for a Rice Tariffication Law review.

If one does not include the unusual year of 1989 when retail prices increased abnormally due to the government’s delayed move to import rice, retail prices decreased by only 2 percent, while farm-gate prices (and incomes) dropped by 23 percent. The remedy of putting in place safeguard duties was not implemented. What worsened matters is that necessary functions in the National Food Authority (NFA) were abolished, creating havoc in the industry.

The President said he would advocate domestic production over unbridled importation. He added he would move to restore the NFA functions and implement the agency’s original mandate of ensuring rice supply and price stabilization.

These received the most applause from the participants.

On smuggling

Rampant smuggling is well documented by the United Nations Comtrade. Unexplained imports have grown from P500 billion in 2019 to P1.3 trillion in 2021.

Despite the excellent work of Agriculture Assistant Secretary James Layug, endless reports of smuggling—with no one seeing jail time—have brought fear to our agriculture sector. With imports expected to increase further due to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the Senate highlighted as a conditionality in the country’s accession to the trade deal the involvement of the private sector in fighting smuggling.

Last Jan. 14, the Philippine News Agency already reported the President’s position on the matter: “President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. has sought the assistance of the private sector to intensify the fight against rampant smuggling in the country … He said that the present system is ‘not working.’”

How this will be implemented has yet to be clarified. However, the President said he would hold the Bureau of Customs, not the DA, accountable for any further deterioration in this area.

The meeting with the President was indeed a very successful step. A follow-up in October is needed so we can finally pursue the agriculture transformation we all need.

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]