“Over the years some agencies have become white elephants draining valuable limited government resources”
AFTER the tumultuous political events of last week which is still being played out, maybe we should shift our focus on more mundane things like the costs of the food we eat and the government agency that is supposed to be providing the public with affordable food, the Department of Agriculture.
There has not been any poll taken as far as I know on how the public thinks about the DA but maybe the recent pronouncement of the Ombudsman about the DA and the NFA being the most corrupt agencies of the land could be taken as an indication.
Sure there are other corrupt agencies but for the Ombudsman who does not normally go about making accusations to specifically single out these two agencies, the accusation is very telling.
Where in the world could we find onions or tomatoes costing up to P650 and P450 a kilo respectively?
The prices have nothing to do with the law of supply and demand but because of syndicates perhaps with the most likely connivance of some DA officials, the prices cannot be brought down so easily. What other explanation could there be?
This goes with the prices of other food commodities such as rice, meat, fish and other foodstuffs.
All it takes is a rumor or a forecast by a DA official in an interview and before we know the unit price of a food item suddenly goes up.
PBBM since the beginning of the year has started to replace some members of his Cabinet but he should also consider abolishing some agencies or at the very least downsize them to the barest minimum to save money.
Over the years some agencies have become white elephants draining valuable limited government resources.
Perhaps, it is time to emulate the United States and drastically reduce our bloated bureaucracy.
But we should do it minus the chaos by planning it thoroughly to avoid the mistakes being committed by the US Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE.
That way, our national budget will only be equivalent to what we earn and not have to borrow year in and year out to finance huge budget deficits which in 2024 alone was equivalent to 5.7 per cent of our GDP. No government can sustain that kind of borrowing.
The question now is which of the agencies should be abolished or downsized.
I am sure there are many candidates but one of them should be the Department of Agriculture which is now become the biggest joke in town.
One media outlet even referred to it as Department of Importation, a fitting description because that seems to be the only solution the DA can think of to bring down sky rocketing food prices. But even that is not working because food prices remain stubbornly high.
If that is the only solution it can think of, then it is better to abolish it to save hundreds of billions of pesos.
Food importation can be done even without a DA and the P200B DA budget can be used elsewhere where it is more needed.
Never in our history have we imported as much and as many as we are doing today.
It used to be just rice but now includes fish. I never imagined that the day will come when we will be importing fish considering that the country is surrounded by oceans and seas.
Yet, the DA cannot do anything about the problem except to import.
A good example of the state of affairs within the DA is to come to Baguio to see what has become of the land belonging to the DA which is called the Bureau of Plants Industry.
It’s a large track of real estate right in the City center and therefore expensive. It’s now gone.
Enterprising DA employees were able to title a large portion of the land to themselves.
The best part which used to be all gardens and plants where school children used to visit to learn about gardening is now full of unplanned government offices while some must be private residences disguised as offices.
The sight is so pathetic that left me completely agreeing with the Ombudsman’s observation about the DA.