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All of a sudden, a “Third Force” is emerging in
the political landscape. The group of Senate President Manny Villar
and the members of the Senate Wednesday Club have indicated that
they would form a senatorial ticket independent of the
administration and the opposition.
This is an interesting
development. Although our political system encourages a multiparty
system, the trend in the last two elections has been the
concentration of the political contest between two “coalitions.”
Smaller parties tended to gather around two main groups—the
opposition and the administration.
The Third Force mainly comes from
the Senate, the institution that has been the administration’s
target for abolition. It cannot therefore join GMA’s group. But it
can neither join the opposition because the members of the Third
Force are formerly anti-Erap elements reluctant to join the
opposition in the hustings.
That the Third Force—with
members like Sens. Joker Arroyo, Francis Pangilinan and Ralph
Recto—can win is a possibility. The personalities behind the group
have a proven national following. But they know that it would be a
great challenge this time to mount a national campaign without the
aid of the main coalitions.
The problem with having a Third
Force is the huge amount of money required to win—as Sen. Miriam
D. Santiago observes. She talked of zillions needed, although I was
told that one candidate spent close to billion pesos. I am sure that
the members of the Third Force are now thinking of with whom to
coalesce as the deadline for the filing of candidacy nears.
Investments
Secretary Arthur Yap of
agriculture reports that 2007 will be an investment year for the
agriculture sector. Apart from private sector sources, the
government, through the DA, he adds, would be pouring more money
into hard infrastructure this year.
Because of the severe damage
wrought by typhoons on farmlands and fishery areas last year, Yap
says the agriculture sector’s 5 percent projected growth for 2007
would still mean that it is on a “recovery phase.” But its
growth would “peak” in 2008 to 7 percent to 8 percent, as the
government plans to invest heavily this year in irrigation systems,
postharvest and other storage facilities like cold refrigeration
chains, and in seed technology.
On top of such public investments
that will drive growth this year and in 2008, there are also 19
agribusiness deals from China that would be put in place in the next
12 to 18 months.
A total of 17 of these projects
cover one million hectares of farmlands, and were all sealed in
memorandum of agreement (MOA) signing ceremonies during the recent
state visit of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
Two other MOAs, both with the
Beidahung Heilongjiang Group, cover another 200,000 hectares and are
set for signing within the year, thus bringing the total investment
area from Chinese-funded projects alone to 1.2 million hectares.
Among the 17 investment deals was
the MOA allowing the Fu Hua Company of China to invest $3.83 billion
(30 billion RMB) in 1 million hectares of land in the Philippines
for the cultivation of hybrid rice, corn and sorghum.
Another MOA provided for the
setting up of four bioethanol plants by the Nanning Yongkai Industry
Group with several local companies that would entail the planting of
sugarcane in an additional 40,000 hectares (at 10,000 hectares per
ethanol plant) to provide feedstock to these plants.
Quite a number of these projects
were worked out by a Yap-led investment mission that went to China
last November, in a follow up to the successful visit to that
country by President Arroyo.
These include projects like the
provision of small mobile ice plants and transport facilities to
municipal fishery cooperatives and associations; the breeding and
culture of grouper and other high-value species; the construction of
a shipyard, establishment of a cold storage facility, and the
rehabilitation of the Navotas Fish Port Complex; the development of
an initial 40,000 hectares of agribusiness lands for cassava and
sugar for ethanol production for China’s domestic consumption; and
the development of the Candaba swamp area as an as an alternative
source of irrigation and potable water.
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