[ Manila Bulletin Online ] March 21, 2008
By MARVYN N. BENANING
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman was scored by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the Anakpawis partylist for allegedly not paying attention to the needs of farmers and for not providing the incentives needed for them to produce palay and thus strengthen food security.
KMP chairman Rafael Mariano also insisted that the rice crisis is real since many farming areas have been converted to residential, industrial, and commercial uses, and noted that in some instances in Quezon and in other provinces, landlords had used land reclassification ordinances to yank out peasants even if they were holders of Certificates of Landownership Awards (CLOAs).
Earlier, Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran rebuked the Department of Agriculture (DA) for not being sensitive to the farmers by footdragging on the increase of farmgate prices for rice, forcing many peasants to march to the DA central office in Quezon City to demand better treatment by the National Food Authority (NFA).
Pangandaman has not been able to tackle the posthaste enactment of zoning ordinances in many farming towns, and this has caused a flurry of land conversion petitions by landlords who have been converting their properties into subdivisions even if they are located three or more kilometers from the nearest highways.
On the other hand, the Fair Trade Alliance (FTA) also criticized Yap for agreeing to a number of deals that make available to Chinese agribusiness corporations up to 1.2 million hectares of Philippine land for cultivation of highvalue commercial crops (HVCCs), hybrid rice, cassava, sugarcane, vegetables and even biofuel feedstock.
Even as Yap assured consumers that there is still an inventory of rice sufficient to last for 57 days, farmers still slammed him for relying on rice imports rather than pushing improved rice production techniques to encourage more farmers to plant.
KMP is also calling for an investigation into rice smuggling, diversions of NFA rice and the preferential treatment by the DA of companies that supply hybrid rice seeds and other inputs.
Earlier, Sens. Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel Jr. and Mar Roxas put Yap to task for the confirmed cases of diversions of NFA rice and the operations of smuggling syndicates said to have strong links with top government officials.
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