DAVAO CITY—Incoming Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol on Friday slammed National Irrigation Authority officials for questioning President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s commitment to providing free irrigation to farmers.
“Anybody in government who does not share President Duterte’s vision for the Filipino farmer is free to leave and find another job,” Piñol said. “I will place a big garbage can in front of my office on July 1. You can throw in your resignation letters in that trash can and leave.”
Piñol said he was irked by a statement supposedly from the NIA that the goal of the incoming administration was “impossible” and told NIA Administrator Wencie Padernal to come up with a strategy to fulfill the promise.
“Free irrigation for the Filipino farmers is a presidential commitment and it is non-negotiable. To hear a statement from the NIA questioning that commitment is not only irritating but also a manifestation of the malady afflicting people in government—that is the failure to think outside the box to help people,” Piñol said.
“There are people in government who think that they are bigger and higher than the people they are supposed to serve,” Piñol said.
Piñol said that he also received a complaint from Regional Director Jun Alviar after the NIA in Region 2 declined to release irrigation water despite repeated requests from the farmers.
“There is something wrong with the way NIA is being managed right now. Many of its top officials may have forgotten that the reason why there is a NIA is because government would like to produce food for the Filipino people by providing irrigation,” Piñol said.
Piñol had earlier proposed that the NIA be brought back under the supervision of the Agriculture Department, after President Benigno Aquino placed the agency along with three others under the supervision of the Presidential Adviser on Food Security, then headed by Senator-elect Francis Pangilinan.
“I hope people in government now, especially those who will work with me in the Agriculture Department and its attached agencies, will understand this—we are here not to lord it over the people but to serve them,” he said.
Also on Friday, the peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the claimants’ movement Coco Levy Fund Ibalik sa Amin (CLAIM) welcomed Duterte’s directive to his Cabinet and legal team “to initiate moves to ensure the release of the coco levy fund to farmers” and urged the incoming president to “consider the direct cash distribution of the coco levy money to small coconut farmers and the creation of a genuine small coconut farmers’ fund.”
“The direct return of the multi-billion coconut levy fund to small coconut farmers is long overdue. Duterte’s pronouncement is a welcome development for small coconut farmers who continue to struggle for more than four decades now to recover the multibillion coco levy fund plundered by the Marcos dictatorship,” says KMP secretary-general Antonio Flores.
“We have not forgotten incoming President Duterte’s promise to return the coco levy fund to small coconut farmers within the first 100 days of his administration. We are pleased that Duterte is working to put action into his words,” Flores said.
Duterte, who met with the secretaries-designate Wednesday evening, ordered his designated chief presidential legal adviser Salvador Panelo to get things moving after Piñol requested the president-elect make a policy statement on the coconut levy funds.
“This is an emotional issue for the coconut farmers, including my late mother. The coconut levy funds should be given to the farmers,” Duterte told the members of his incoming Cabinet.
“I am directing Attorney Panelo to look into this matter and make sure that the coconut levy funds are released to the farmers,” he said.
In his campaign speeches, Duterte vowed to order the distribution of the levy within a month of his taking office.
Duterte said political will was needed to enforce the Supreme Court decision to return the money to farmers after it ruled that the levy was a public fund meant to develop the country’s coconut industry.
Last year, President Aquino issued Executive Order No. 179, which governs the disposition and privatization of the coco levy assets, and EO No. 180, which provides the guidelines for the use of the P74.3 billion recovered from San Miguel Corp. Its enforcement was stopped after coconut farmers obtained a restraining order from the Supreme Court.
Piñol said the release of coco levy funds can help grow the coconut industry.
The peasant group also suggested that Duterte’s legal team should consider the long-standing demand and national clamor for the “direct cash distribution of the fund to small coconut farmers and utilization of the fund for the genuine development of the local coconut industry.” With Sandy Araneta