Senate Imee Marcos On Sunday warned of low farm yields and even food shortages if farmers are unable to use the P9 billion government subsidies as she urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) to hasten its release.
The amount, Marcos said, would be used by farmers to buy fertilizers and other farm inputs.
Marcos said the subsidies should be distributed to the rice farmers who are now preparing for the wet planting season this September to October.
“The DA is creating bigger problems for itself if it delays the release of farmer subsidies. Farm yields for the country’s staple crops cannot be maintained, much less increased, if farmers can’t afford fertilizers and quit their livelihood,” she said.
Rice farmers sought help from Marcos’s office and complained that the P5,000 worth of cash aid allotted to some 1.6 million farmers was slow in coming, months after the Department of Budget and Management first announced its availability.
“Don’t put farmers’ funds in a time deposit since they’re not meant to earn interest. Speed up the release, right now,” said Marcos.
The Land Bank of the Philippines said the delay was allegedly due to the DA’s problem with its ID system.
“If the DA lacks the capacity to update its RSBSA (Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture), then it should call on municipal agriculturists who ought to have a list of farmers’ cooperatives in their areas of responsibility,” the chairman of the Senate committee on cooperatives said.
Marcos added that the RSBSA’s list of individual farmers given access to fertilizer and seed subsidies should not exclude but continue to support those whose livelihood has grown to process their crops into value-added products.
About P18.9 billion in rice tariffs were collected by the government last year, allowing the allotment of close to P9 billion in additional farmer subsidies besides the P10 billion mandated under the Rice Tariffication Law.
Marcos said that a farmer tilling one hectare to rice can save 25 percent to 33 percent on fertilizer costs with the P5,000 subsidy.
Farmers use from six to eight bags of fertilizer per hectare and will be spending P15,000 to P20,000 at today’s prices of urea fertilizer.
The tight global supply of fertilizer has sent local farmers reeling from prices that have tripled since 2020, from about P800 per 50-kilogram bag of urea to P2,300 to P2,500 this year.
On Thursday, Senator Cynthia Villar rebuked officials of the DA and challenged them to resign if they cannot do their jobs and threatened to file charges against them if they did not suspend the implementation of a memorandum that goes against the spirit of the Rice Tariffication Law.
Acknowledging that the farmers belong to the country’s poorest sector, Villar said the government should help them to increase their production that would eventually augment their earnings.
During the organizational hearing of the Senate agriculture and food committee, Villar cited the need for their collaborative efforts to improve the lives of Filipino farmers through financial assistance provided to them by the government.
Villar said there was a huge budget allocated to projects for the farmers and stakeholders in the agriculture industry, but they found out that these funds have remained undisbursed and unobligated.
Those who got tongue lashing from Villar during the Committee’s organizational meeting were Dr. Junel Soriano, OIC director of the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM); Dionisio Alvindia, Director IV, Philippine Center for Postharvest, Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) and Benjamin Madrigal, Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) administrator.
Villar also demanded from the three a commitment that they will resign should they fail to do their jobs.
During the hearing, Villar mentioned Memo No. 34, issued during the time of Agriculture Secretary William Dar, creating an advisory council for the implementation of the farm mechanization program. This was supposed to be done by the PhilMech.
The Rice Tariffication Law created a P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), P5 billion of which would be allotted to farm mechanization, P3 billion to seedlings, and P1 billion to expanded rice credit assistance.
“Don’t implement this memo. You have two memos that you implemented through Secretary Dar. The Memo 34 which created an advisory council to implement the mechanization program of the RCEF, that is against the law. I will tell you I will file a case against you if you don’t stop this advisory committee,” Villar, who heads the committee, said.
The senator also flared up when she learned that the P1.1 billion budget for the procurement of composting facilities has not yet been spent.
She noted that one composting machine will produce one ton of organic fertilizer every month.
“That would be 12 tons a year. They will no longer buy fertilizer. They can recoup the cost of the composting facility in one year,” said Villar.
Being vice chairperson of the Senate finance committee, Villar said she asked that P1.1 billion from the P4.4 billion allocated for the national rice program be moved to purchase of a composting facility for sustainability.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Aquino Pimentel III said they can make a compromise with the Senate Blue Ribbon committee to defer its issuance of a partial report on its hearing of the sugar importation fiasco until such time that Executive Secretary Victor Rodriquez is able to be questioned by the senators.
“We will talk with the chairman. We can have a compromise to have a hearing again and not issue a partial committee report,” said Pimentel.
Blue Ribbon committee chairperson Senator Francis Tolentino told reporters he will issue a partial report this week after the hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 6.
Tolentino acknowledged that Rodriquez cannot appear in the hearing due to his busy schedule with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Pimentel, who was a Senate president, said they can ask Tolentino to just come up with a final report about the sugar hearing after the appearance of Rodriquez.
He said the executive secretary will just be questioned on Sugar Order No. 4 issued by resigned Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) Administrator Hermegekdo Serafica even with the approval of President Marcos.
Pimentel noted that Rodriguez merely showed up at the panel’s first hearing, made a statement, then left.