|
SENATE President Manuel Villar, Sen. Dick Gordon, Sen. Rodolfo
Biazon and Sen. Chiz Escudero have called for a Senate inquiry to
determine the adequacy of the rice supply, the reasons for the
rising cost of the staple food, and the most effective proposals to
avert any food crisis. The proposed inquiry could be undertaken by
the Committee on Agriculture headed by Sen. Edgardo Angara. Or, it
could be by the Committee on Government Corporations chaired by
Senator Gordon since the National Food Authority is a government
firm. I have high hopes that the inquiry will be a constructive one,
whichever of the two committees conducts.
For sure, there will be no EO 464 or executive
privilege in the projected inquiry. I note that Agriculture
Secretary Arthur Yap has welcomed plans of Congress to ask the
Department of Agriculture to shed light on the current rice issue.
He said that the congressional inquiries would enable the DA “to
present the true picture with regard to the staple and apprise
legislators on the government initiatives to stabilize retail
prices.” It must be recalled that Yap had previously expressed
willingness to brief senators and congressmen on the “real”
supply situation plus the long-term and short-term measures being
implemented by the government to deal with the situation.
While the inquiry is most welcome, it must not
detract from the urgency of enacting measures needed to implement
the P43.7-billion FIELDS program that President Arroyo had unveiled
in the Food Summit last Friday “to sustain Philippine
agriculture’s high growth and guarantee the nation’s food
security in the face of a looming global food crunch.” (FIELDS
stands for Fertilizer, Irrigation, Education and training of farmers
and fisherfolk, Loans, Dryers and other postharvest facilities, and
Seeds of the high-yielding, hybrid varieties.)
In my previous column, I mentioned the use of
land as collateral for bank loans and the amendment of the Agri-Agra
Law as among the measures that Congress must pass to ensure greater
access of farmers to loan facilities. To these two measures, I must
add the enactment of a National Land Use Act as proposed by Speaker
Prospero Nograles and Sen. Migz Zubiri.
Land Use Act also needed
Nograles earlier said that a National Land Use
Act would greatly facilitate the proper identification and
delineation of lands for agricultural and other purposes. Migz, on
the other hand, said that a National Land Use Act could prevent the
conversion of agricultural land into commercial or residential land.
Rep. Tony Cerilles of Zamboanga del Sur, the
chairman of the House special committee on land use, said he would
immediately call a public hearing on Nograles’ proposal.
Incidentally, Tony himself had filed House Bill 3175 which also
seeks to institutionalize a national land use policy. Tony was my
ROTC officer during our college days at UST. I covered his father
Vicente Madarang Cerilles at the Batasan and then, him at the House
from 1987 to 1998. He was named environment secretary by President
Erap in 1998 and I witnessed the hard time given him by Sen. Loren
Legarda during his confirmation hearings by the Commission on
Appointments. He was eventually confirmed, however. He lost his bid
for a House seat in 2001 after the ouster of Erap, but he returned
with a vengeance in 2004 and 2007.
But going back to the National Land Use Act,
Tony explained that a Land Use Act would promote and ensure: food
security through efficient and sustainable use of land resources and
balanced and dispersed industrial and tourism development that would
complement the principles of sound agricultural development. Now, if
such a law could be properly implemented, then it will certainly go
a long way in ensuring the preservation of existing agricultural
land and in identifying areas for its expansion.
Appropriate use of funds
A congressional oversight committee jointly
headed by Sen. Edgardo Angara and Rep. Abraham Mitra of Palawan is
now reviewing the projects being sponsored by the recently revived
Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF). The ACEF has
an unused fund of P7 billion, and Secretary Yap had promised to
supplement it with the DA budget. Angara and Mitra have vowed to
make sure that ACEF would be used only for the most productive
projects.
Mitra is the son of the late Speaker Monching
Mitra whom I covered at the Batasan and at the House from 1987 to
1998. I remember that when Monching was pushing for the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, a news report claimed that he
owned hundreds of hectares of land in Bohol. It turned out that the
“Speaker” the news source was referring to was former Speaker
Cornelio Villareal, not Mitra. A correction was later made but the
harm had been done.
efrendanao2003@yahoo.com
|
