The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
I completely agree with the Federation of Free Farmers in calling for a leadership change at the Departments of Agriculture, Agrarian Reform and Labor and Employment. Clearly, these agencies have fallen short of their targets and commitments.
In a statement, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) called on President Marcos Jr. to closely assess the performance of key frontline agencies—DA, DAR, and DOLE—as part of his ongoing Cabinet overhaul.
FFF chairman and National Trade Union Center of the Philippines VP Leonardo Montemayor acknowledged the generally approachable nature of the agencies’ current secretaries but stressed the need for stronger action, saying they can do more.
“For instance, DOLE should be pushing harder for a living wage. The DA must exert greater efforts to ensure fair prices for farmers’ produce and DAR to act decisively on longstanding agrarian disputes, many of which have caused death or injury to farmer-victims,” he said.
He mentioned specific areas like Sta. Cruz in Occidental Mindoro; Amai Manabilang in Lanao del Sur; and Guinobatan in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro, where agrarian reform beneficiaries continue to face harassment, displacement, and in some cases, fatal violence.
To address these concerns, he urged the President to engage directly and regularly with farmers, fishers, laborers, and their organizations.
Montemayor suggested the establishment of a Basic Sectors Advisory Council (BSAC) to mirror the current Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC), which is composed of business leaders and chaired by billionaire Sabin M. Aboitiz.
If the President regularly meets with key business leaders in the PSAC, he should create a similar advisory body to represent the interests of the peasants and the working class, Montemayor said.
Such a council, he added, could offer real-time feedback on government policies and programs from the viewpoint of ordinary citizens, providing a more balanced perspective between the interests of big business and grassroots sectors.
“It will also temper the general perception that the President’s economic team is primarily pro-big business and pro-foreign investor,” Montemayor said.
My take
The President, busy as he is, should rely heavily on the findings of NGOs, POs and the proposed advisory council for the small people, so that he would have a real, not filtered, view of current realities.
Several officials in his Cabinet only report what is good, but not the entire problematic situations in their departments for fear of being perceived as inept and should thus be replaced immediately.
The DA has performed dismally, I should say, in assisting the farmers, fisherfolk and rural women. It has failed in ensuring that marginal and coastal fisherfolk would continue to enjoy their legal rights of engaging in their livelihood in coastal shorelines.
Yet, under DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. (whose family’s billions were earned from commercial fishing) the rights fisherfolks used to enjoy was removed from them when commercial fishing was allowed in coastal waters during his tenure.
He also failed miserably in ensuring domestic food production and focused more in increasing importations of all basic food items, hence we are now importing everything that we eat.
DAR may have been good at fostering, organizing and energizing agrarian reform beneficiaries but it failed in ensuring sustainability of their farms by focusing more on ayudas and condonation of past loans.
The DOLE is one failed agency altogether. It did not just halt the common big business practice of ENDO but even institutionalized it. Its ayuda programs (TUPAD and the like) have just created massive dependence on dole outs rather than hard work.
It also leaned more in protecting business interests than the already-burdened laborers, which it is mandated to protect.