Turning threat into opportunity for agriculture 

Farmers, fisherfolk and agriculture stakeholders must turn today’s threat of continued corruption into an opportunity. Two events in the last few days indicate that this is the right time.

The recent anticorruption demonstrations have created a climate where significant change is now possible. Last Dec. 9, President Marcos went beyond addressing symptoms to tackling the root of corruption.

Punishing the corrupt is not enough. The root is the system that allows this corruption. If this is not addressed, the symptoms will persist.

The president identified four bills for prioritization to tackle this problem.

• The Anti-Political Dynasty Bill will put an end to the control of our government by entrenched dynasties.
• The Party List System Reform Act will stop the farce of this being misrepresented by unscrupulous politicians.
• The Independent People’s Commission Act will allow objective findings and corrective action without undue interference from powerful vested interests.
• The Citizens Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability will enable the transparency and preventive action necessary to stop the massive misuse of our government resources.

DA takes action

Last Dec. 8, the Department of Agriculture (DA) created a watchdog with authority to take corrective action as it monitors the implementation of farm-to-market roads and other agriculture-related infrastructure projects.

It will operate under a Social and Environmental Safeguards unit that will institutionalize safeguard measures.

DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said, “A nationwide network of trained safeguards officers will provide oversight at both central and regional levels.”

We had participated in the limited monitoring of farm-to-market roads as an elected private sector committee chair of the Philippine Council of Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF).

However, our documented reports of anomalies were not acted upon by the Department of Public Works and Highways, which had the authority to take action.

Since Tiu Laurel will harness PCAF officers at the national and local levels as part of the watchdog body with authority, we can now see positive results.

Private sector

On private sector participation in governance, agriculture stakeholders are now assertively recommending reform.

While in the past, these recommendations were largely ignored, under Tiu Laurel’s leadership, they are getting the attention they deserve. This has been happening ever since he took over.

There have been many reports of rigged bidding by identified DA regional executive directors (REDs). However, little action has been taken because of the difficulty of obtaining evidence.

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Last week, Buen Mondejar, the elected head of the 16 Regional Agriculture and Fisheries Council chairs, made a report on this issue.

It included an instance when a RED had asked a bidder to withdraw to facilitate the rigging. Another was when this RED asked the winning bidder for an expensive Rolex watch. Mondejar explained that rigging is happening because the RED has control of who the bidders can be.

Mondejar recommends that the elected local PCAF private sector chair be given the complete list of qualified bidders, instead of the RED solely choosing from this list. This way, the PCAF chair can open the bidding to all others not on the RED list. This way, the rigging will be stopped.

Prevention is better than cure.

Another example is the private sector recommendation that a checklist (similar to that used by private sector banks) be complied with before a DA grant is given. This will significantly reduce the 30 percent waste and corruption documented in the PCAF monitoring reports. Now implemented, this has resulted in effective grant processing, with three REDs already taken out of their jobs, partly for noncompliance with this checklist requirement. Thankfully, majority of the REDs are cooperating.

The farmers, fisherfolk and agriculture stakeholders must take advantage of this critical time when the threat of continued corruption has provided the opportunity of achieving the significant governance reform they have long been fighting for.