PRE-SONA FORUM
A citizens movement in Davao City, Konsensya Dabaw (KD) was relaunched last weekend during a forum they organized along with Ateneo de Davao University’s – University Community Engagement and Advocacy Council (ADDU-UCEAC) . I am grateful to be invited as one of the panelists on the forum discussion “Unsay Mapalit sa Imong P20? A Pre-Sona Forum”.
The main speaker was former Bayan Muna Representative Atty. Neri Colmenares who shared comprehensively on the national situation of our country. Fellow panelist Atty Romeo Cabarde Jr., director of Ateneo Public Interest and Legal Advocacy (APILA), discussed trends and challenges that confront our environment. While fellow Davao Today columnist and Women Studies and Resource Center (WSRC) Margarita Valle shared the challenges that confront women and children. I was tasked to discuss the local situation of the farmers and the agriculture sector.
I started my discussion with a 2015 study that serve as baseline on chronic food insecurity situation in 18 Mindanao provinces. The food insecurity levels in Mindanao mainly ranges from mild covering Zamboanga Sibugay and Zamboanga del Sur and severe in the case of Lanao del Sur, while the vast majority are in moderate chronic food insecurity level.
While Mindanao is dubbed as the country’s “Food Basket” it suffers chronic food insecurity, showing utmost irony of a very unsustainable agricultural economy. The past and present policies continue, noting that the Top 15 mining operations are also happening in Mindanao, while vast lands at least 500,000 hectares are covered by big agribusiness plantations. Such character exposes the unsustainable character of Philippine agriculture – export-oriented and import-dependent.
Another policy that also affected Mindanaoan farmers and consumers can be traced to the Rice Tariffication Law of former President Duterte.
At present with the growing gap between minimum wage and family living wage increases, it is logical to conclude that chronic food insecurity is expected to be higher compared to the 2015 data.
The forum concluded by a re-affirmation to strengthen Davao city’s civil society movement that will put emphasis on good governance, justice and sustainable development.
SONA 2024
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivered his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday July 22, 2024 at the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City. Marcos Jr. started his speech by being proud of Philippine economic performance claiming that we are “among the best-performing in Asia”, while also trying to project sympathy for the common Filipinos confronted by the skyrocketing prices of commodities, in particular the costly price of rice.
Marcos Jr. framed that the increasing inflation rates observed globally, was caused by external factors such as wars and the weather such as El Niño. This is a clear attempt to downplay the real score behind our fragile rice industry in particular and agricultural economy in general being export-oriented and import-dependent.
While he mentioned vital points of the rice value chain that need attention, clearly there is a lack of substantial policy reforms to seriously address the perennial problems of our agriculture sector. Instead, Marcos Jr. boasted of having highest yields since 1987, a subtle attempt to re-project his father’s failed MASAGANA 99 program that focuses on yield, a desperate move to revise history.
Despite the populist theatrics and rhetoric of Marcos Jr.’s SONA, it is clear that this administration continues to implement the same old failed agricultural policies of neo-liberalism. While this administration claimed to push for self-sufficiency, rice tariffication law continued to place us further in import dependency from 13.8% to 23% and rice self-sufficiency continues to be diminished from 86.2% to 77.0% since 2018.
The hope of our agricultural economy lies in the hardworking hands of our farmers and farm-workers to continue pushing for a pro-farmer and pro-people agricultural economy.
agriculture, Marcos Jr., philippines, SONA
