The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Rose de la Cruz
The Federation of Free Farmers is asking Congress to investigate alleged extortion activities of some personnel at the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) from farm school owners and managers to expedite the release of grants for farmer-scholars.
The same group also asked newly-appointed TESDA Director General Jose Francisco Benitez to conduct a similar investigate the matter.
According to news reports, some TESDA provincial personnel are demanding “under the table” payments from farm school owners or managers, equivalent to 30 percent of the fee that TESDA pays for training farmer-scholars.
The “under the table” payment is reportedly an advance payment, with the farm school receiving P10,000 to P12,000 from TESDA for each farmer who enrolls in training, according to repoets in Milyonaryo.com.
The FFF also claimed these payments were solicited by agents of elected politicians in collusion with unscrupulous agency personnel.
TESDA receives P700 million yearly from the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) — or the tariffs collected from imported rice– to train rice farmers under the Rice Tariffication Law of 2019. This money is used to pay farm schools for the training of rice farmers, the business blog site said.
Aside from RCEF, TESDA also receives separate funds for organic agriculture and other agriculture-related programs from its regular appropriations.
This year alone, TESDA was allocated P15.2 billion, and in 2023, it received P13.7 billion for agricultural training.
TESDA also has an annual allocation of P400 million from the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act for the training of coconut farmers.
The FFF stressed the urgency for Congress to evaluate TESDA’s use of agriculture training funds, especially since amendments to RCEF are being deliberated in Congress.
While the House of Representatives has approved amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law that would eliminate TESDA as a conduit for these funds, the Senate Committee on Agriculture has recommended increasing TESDA’s allocation from the RCEF to P1 billion annually until 2030.
The Senate Committee on Agriculture is chaired by Senator Cynthia Villar, whose family owns Villar Sipag, an organization that conducts agriculture training and has partnered with TESDA for some programs, the group added.
Created by RTL or RA 11203 of 2019, the RCEF which has an annual budget of P10 billion from tariffs on imported rice, allocates P5 billion for distribution of farm machinery and equipment, P3 billion for high quality inbred certified seeds and P1 billion for credit support, training of farmers and extension services.
TESDA gets P700 million yearly to train rice farmers improve their farm technologies. The funds are disbursed to eligible beneficiaries through financial grants to accredited farm schools and their farmer-scholars, reported the Inquirer.
The bill seeking to extend and amend some provisions of the RTL already reached plenary sessions in the Senate, the paper added.
Some of the proposed changes include extending the law for another six years or until 2031 and increasing the rice fund allocation to P30 billion to be sourced from the tariff rate on imported rice, with any deficiency to be supplemented by the General Appropriations Act, the Inquirer noted.