Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte from Camarines Sur is pressing for the return of agriculture and fishery services control and supervision from local governments to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Villafuerte said he agrees with Senate President Francis Escudero and Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. that returning control of such services to the national government would boost farm output because the recurring productivity problems of this vital sector are largely a result of the 1991 devolution of certain powers to local governments.
“I support the plan of SP Chiz [Escudero] and Secretary Kiko [Tiu Laurel] to work on the renationalization of agricultural services to give back to the DA and its attached agencies the full control over agricultural programs, facilities and personnel, especially extension workers, that were devolved to local governments under the Local Government Code of 1991,” Villafuerte said.
“This is the only way to decisively address what has been seen as the disconnect between the national government, through the DA and its attached agencies, and the local governments in the implementation of agricultural and fishery programs and projects that is believed largely responsible for the perennially anemic farm productivity,” Villafuerte, a three-term governor of his province, said.
“It is a good thing that SP Chiz, Sec Kiko and I are on the same page here with Local Government Secretary Jonvic (Juan Victor Remulla) who, in being a long-time governor like me prior to his Cabinet posting, supports a revisit of the 1991 LGC with an eye to tweaking its provisions on the devolution of certain functions from the central government to LGUs,” he said.
The LGC or Republic Act 7160 was signed by then-President Corazon C. Aquino in 1991 to devolve agriculture and fishery, health, education and other services to local governments, in step with the 1987 Constitution’s policy on genuine local autonomy and decentralization.
Villafuerte also agreed with Escudero that RA 8435, or the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (Afma) of 1997, necessitates the full administrative control and supervision of the DA over all agriculture and fishery personnel in the field.
During the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (Pcafi)’s recent anniversary celebration at the Club Filipino in San Juan City, Escudero said that he and Tiu Laurel were “discussing if the administration will push for the renationalization of the agriculture services … so that the DA will handle all the programs in the agriculture sector.”
Escudero said that when he was still a congressman representing Sorsogon, he filed in 1998 a bill renationalizing agriculture because the problems of this sector could be traced to the devolution of such powers to local governments under the 1991 LGC.