Agri scam on ‘daang P-Noy’

THIS IS a reaction to the news story headlined “DA squandered P14B—COA” (Front Page, 4/22/15). In behalf of the rural communities it is serving, the Philippine Network of Food Security Programmes would like to express dismay over the blatant corruption going on right under the nose of President Aquino.

The President once stated: “Compare mo sa fertilizer scam, gaano kalaki ang diperensiya? And yung fertilizer scam is the tip of the iceberg, marami pang iba.” He was then referring to the different scams during former president Gloria Arroyo’s time. But this P14-billion corruption, which happened during his presidency, trumps anomalies under the previous administration. Yet to this, he has nothing to say. He keeps on promoting his “daang matuwid,” but when corrupt activities of his allies are exposed, Malacañang officials are quick to defend them.

Justice has always been elusive to the Filipino peasants. The court dismissed the P728-million fertilizer scam case against former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante and Arroyo, the accused masterminds behind the scam.

Filipino farmers are already suffering from their being deprived of their land rights, expensive farm inputs, usury and the effects of climate change. Aggravating their suffering is the big-time theft of government funds meant for them. The P14 billion could have greatly alleviated their very poor conditions. It could have been used to distribute agricultural lands to farmers for free, or at the very least, subsidize local rice procurement by the National Food Authority (NFA).

In the present harvest season, because imported and smuggled rice is flooding the market, monopoly traders are very much underpricing palay procurement at P18.50 per kilogram. This spells for our local poor farmers huge losses because the prices of inputs and other costs of production are still expensive for them. If the P14 billion were used to procure palay at a subsidized price of P25 per kg, the NFA could have bought with it 560 million kg of palay from the local producers, which is equivalent to 336 million kg of milled rice—enough to feed 2.8 million hungry Filipinos for one year (at per capita consumption of 119 kg per person). And the local farmers will have reasonable incomes from rice farming. Instead, the P14 billion went to farm-to-market roads that were left unfinished and to NGOs, one of which is tied to Janet Lim Napoles.

Perhaps this nonchalant attitude of the President to the plight of the farmers is already expected. As one of the owners of Hacienda Luisita, he has no inclination to let go of the lands that the Supreme Court has already ordered distributed to the hacienda’s agricultural workers.

This is why people’s organizations and grassroots civil society organizations have no choice but to continue to fight for the farmers’ right to land and the right to food.

—ESTRELLA CATARATA,

executive director,

Philippine Network of Food Security Programmes,

[email protected]