Facts have changed; will Mr. Diokno change his mind?

THE state of agriculture today, after six years of neglect under Mr. Duterte, is what you can call "staring at the abyss." The neglect of agriculture was one thing. But the adoption of importation as the default policy after every reported shortage in a critical food item was clearly the giant slayer of the agricultural sector. For all intents and purposes, the Department of Agriculture (DA) changed mandates. It is now called by many farm sectors as the "Department of Importation" or DI. And the institutionalization of that perverted mandate for the DA took place under the Duterte administration.