The forgotten economy

It is hard to deny it. No matter how much our current and prospective officials constantly boast of the resplendent gross domestic productivity (GDP) growth that they imagine leaves comparable economies in the region not only far behind us but eating the dust in the wake of our incredible economic advances, the relative size of our agricultural sector matched against the industrial remains substantial and characterizes ours as, indeed, primarily agricultural.

The numbers are validated not simply by the number of people that depend on agriculture for life-sustaining livelihood and food on the table, but also the hectarage of real estate dedicated to planting low-margin staples.

When combined, those validate the lack of inclusive economic development that not only renders our GDP growth irrelevant but also confirms the reality behind the other statistical indices that declare us as constantly downtrodden and in desperate need of leadership with a platform of change rather than blind continuity.

While now regarded as a colossal failure, mostly because of distortions in the manner it was implemented, the agrarian-reform program the late Corazon C. Aquino had established as her centerpiece economic and poverty-alleviation program had, at least, initially focused on placing food on the table in front of any other concern that politicians might imagine are important to the voting public. Supported by competent people, and more important, a set of principled men and women who were not simply out to squeeze every last centavo just so they might remain in power, Tita Cory was one Aquino who empathized with the needs of her constituents and understood what needed to be prioritized.

Unfortunately, the agrarian-reform agenda was insidiously destroyed by people who had then shared her good name, and much in the same manner that her memory is now dragged through the mud by those, who in carrying forth, by sloth and stupidity, continue to mar her once-noble focus. Rather than actually transfer physical, proprietary and management control and ownership of land tilled by tenant farmers, some smart-ass corporate lawyer conceived that pieces of paper suffice to evidence ownership and actual tillers might well be custodians in name.

If imagery and virtual falsehoods surrounded the agrarian initiatives under Cory Aquino then fast-forwarded to the present and extrapolated in the next six years via a ruling-party platform of continuity, on the matter of agricultural development, falsehoods will prevail in infinitely more sinister, if not dysfunctional forms. These range from controversial grain importations amid tonnages of rotting rice in warehouses under Aquino, to accusations of influence peddling and brazen smuggling leveled against a presidential coterie characterized by the KKK (Kabarilan, Kaibigan and Kaklase) clique.

Simply look at what has been published of the economic platform of the administration presidential candidate. Seek within its prose and scour if there might be something even remotely tangential to placing food on the table. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that shows a genuine concern for the malnourished, underfed and hungry, despite open and unmistakable clamor that the next president prioritize that rather simple agenda of providing basic food.

For those with undergraduate degrees from the Ateneo de Manila School of Economics on one end, to those who claim and boast of higher pedigrees from Ivy League colleges in the American East Coast, on the other, it would do well to first listen and then perhaps discern the empirical data lest they continue to forget who it is who holds the voter’s pen.

On the second week of January, a survey revealed what politicians seemed to have forgotten, focused as they were on destroying the reputations of others. The survey showed eight out of 10, or 76 percent of people will elect into office candidates whose platforms focus on food.

If, indeed, our economy had grown, would the public beg for food sufficiency from these clowns who promise continuity and who brazenly seek our votes?