2 MIN READ

By NIÑO OCONER
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — Peasant groups cried foul over the comments of a top Department of Agriculture (DA) official blaming the farmers for an oversupply of vegetables in Northern Luzon.

In a September 9 statement, Solidarity of Peasants Against Exploitation (Stop Exploitation) Chairperson Antonino Pugyao called the government “inutile and insensitive,” saying that farmers got insults instead of help from the government agency.

This comes after DA Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban made stern comments in a radio interview pinning the blame on farmers’ poor planning in crop planting. The official said farmers “plant crops but they don’t think about the market for their harvests.”

Reports surfaced of Batanes Governor Marilou Cayco appealing to buyers as the province produced a surplus of 25 tons of garlic. Social media postings of a farmer in Benguet shredding his cabbage crops to use as fertilizer also went viral before the official’s comments.

“Nakalimutan ata ni Usec. Panganiban na sa DA sya nagtatrabaho at hindi bilang tagapagsalita ng mga smuggler, importer, at mga gahamang komersyante,” Pugyao said.

(Usec. Panganiban must have forgotten that he works at the DA and not as a spokesperson for smugglers, importers, and greedy merchants.)

In response to Panganiban’s suggestion that Batanes sell the oversupply to Ilocos Region, Pugyao pointed out that the region also produces garlic.

“Para bang gusto pa ng kalihim na pag-untugin ang mga ulo naming mga magsasaka,” he said.

(The undersecretary seems to want to create conflict among us farmers).

The peasant leader said that instead of blaming the farmers, the DA should address real problems concerning the government’s massive crop importation, which threatens the local market and farmers’ livelihoods.

He also added that with a hundred-billion-peso budget allocation, the DA should focus on providing concrete solutions, not insulting them. 

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) chairperson emeritus Rafael Mariano echoed Pugyao’s sentiments in a separate September 8 statement. He said decades of over-importation and corruption brought about the food crisis.

“With due respect to Usec. Panganiban, he should go out in the fields and touch some grass. He should see for himself the actual situation and grievances of farmers,” Mariano said.

KMP noted that DA’s data shows that local garlic production stood at 4,817 metric tons while imports reached 78,133 metric tons. “We are relying heavily on imported garlic and the DA consciously allows it,” Mariano said.

He added that farmers and traders have difficulty delivering the crops to trading posts due to high transportation costs. Meanwhile, smuggled and imported vegetables easily proliferate in the local market.

Mariano urged the government to rethink and reverse its liberalized agricultural trade policies, which drive local agriculture towards the “precipice of extinction.” # nordis.net