“If there’s one thing that the incoming President will prove to all and sundry is that he is willing to take the full responsibility for meeting the challenge affecting the country”
If there is something that can be seen in the take-over “for now” of President-elect Bongbong Marcos of the Department of Agriculture, it’s his political will to meet the challenge of a looming food security problem.
Santa Banana, sure enough as leader, BBM is determined to take full responsibility for the success or failure of the looming food security problem.
The young Marcos knows full well that the food crisis affects every Filipino, rich and poor alike.
At least with BBM now in charge of the department, everybody in the DA will realize that they must be alert and do their best to keep up with the expectations of the incoming President.
The upside of BBM taking over the Department of Agriculture is that its budget will surely be increased, and that a full reorganization is expected.
The downside is that he will have to reorganize the department to function as he would like it.
And that cannot take overnight. At least, at the start, smuggling of food products will now stop and everybody in the department will be on everybody’s toes.
If there’s one thing BBM will prove to all and sundry it is that he is willing to take the full responsibility for meeting the challenge affecting the country.
At least for now, we can expect things to move more swiftly in the department which was a real mess for lack of attention.
No doubt the problems confronting BBM insofar as food security is concerned are tremendous, to say the least.
As with other prices of food, the main staple of the Filipinos — rice — is also going up, hitting as high as P40 to P50 a kilo. Just how high will the price of a ganta of rice escalate? And will a kilo of rice ever go bank to P20? That will be a big problem of the young Marcos.
Another problem is that fish is now being imported. The lowly “galunggong” or the blue mackerel scad, also a staple food of the poor, my gulay, is even now imported, as are many dairy products.
BBM certainly knows the problem and he is willing to take the full responsibility and accountability for making Filipinos confident on food security. I said, at the risk of being repetitious, we can either sink or swim with him.
At least we now have a President who has enough political will to confront the problems headlong.
***
With the start of the rainy season, it could do well for Bongbong Marcos to realize that agriculture gets a beating with the devastation of crops, together with the livelihood of people.
There’s a pending bill in the Senate (SB 250) to create the Department of Disaster Resilience, with the department’s focus on mitigating calamities and disasters.
The creation of the DDR was enacted by the House of Representatives, but remains pending in the Senate.
The incoming President must realize the critical and urgent need for a permanent agency like the Department of Disaster Resilience to focus itself in preserving whatever gains the country has had on agriculture.
While we have the NDRRMC or the National Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Council, now devolved into regional, provincial and local government, it’s only an ad hoc body which activates only after a calamity or disaster.
What we need is a present body with its budget to handle the three Rs (rescue, relief and rehabilitation) as a permanent body to focus itself on saving lives, protect infrastructure and agriculture which are almost always devastated when floods come and those adversely affected won’t have to depend on the private sector and foreign aid.
I believe this DDR becomes more crucial now that the incoming President has seen fit to take over the Department of Agriculture and to see to it that the gains we had on agriculture, considering the looming threat of a food crisis, will not be lost to floods, which threaten the country every year.
I also hope that the Senate will realize the need for the DDR after BBM made food security as the anchor of his administration.
For these reasons I cannot overstress the need for the DDR to not only save the country billions of pesos worth of infrastructure and agriculture, but more to save lives.
***
The OCTA Research and the Inter-Agency Task Force have been predicting that by the end of the month or early next month, COVID-19 cases will uptick to about 3000 in Metro Manila.
But, this should not be a cause for alarm, the Department of Health and the IATF say. The DOH and the IATF still consider the metropolis as a low risk area.
I don’t know if I should be glad or thankful for such a forecast, but the health authorities should not take chances since we all know what it means when there is a COVID-19 surge.
I believe that the health authorities should not take second chances in the observance of health protocols, considering the Philippines is on its way to economic recovery. We cannot afford to lose all the gains we have had.
***
So far, the nominees of incoming President Bongbong Marcos for his Cabinet have been good.
While some sectors have had some reservations on some of the nominees, it all depends on how BBM will handle them and what policies will be pursued.
I, for one, have some reservations on some of his nominees. The first 100 days of the young Marcos’ administration will be very critical, and he cannot afford to disappoint the more than 30 million Filipinos who voted him into office.
Considering that the challenges that confront BBM are very daunting, whatever he will do for the next 100 days upon assumption of office will be put under a microscope.
So far, one good thing BBM has done is to show the people that he has the political will to meet the biggest challenge of all to any government — food security – by assuming the secretaryship of the agriculture department.
How the young Marcos will fare when it comes to the challenges in the administration departments remains to be seen.
We have high hopes that his economic team led by newly-nominated Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno will also have enough political will as the young Marcos has to jumpstart the nation’s economic recovery.
I say this because we believe that Diokno and company will be doing what is expected of them within the next 100 days starting July 1.
Personally, I have the highest hopes for the economic team of the former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor. Let’s hope BBM’s economic team will live up to high expectations.
***
If there’s anything I will miss with President Duterte stepping down from office, it’s his curses and saying things he really doesn’t mean.
That’s something which no other president before him ever did. “Pu…ina.”
