Another “Your days are numbered?”
FOR too long, we have seen presidents come and go, grappling with the issue of how best to support farmers’ livelihood. They ordered subsidies to keep costs of production low, built more roads for better access to markets, delivered equipment, etc. But one thing they failed to do was to stop smuggling and hoarding by unscrupulous traders. (Only the Duterte administration came close to stopping the ordeal suffered by farmers but that effort also failed because still no smuggler or hoarder was arrested).
Recall that on July 5, 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. made a bold statement calling out the smugglers and hoarders of rice last year when the price of rice soared to the ceiling, and his administration appeared helpless: “Your days are numbered,” he bellowed.
It was a desperate move to assure the country that the situation was under control. But as months passed, his thunderous threat only gave the impression that his government knew who the enemies of the farmers were yet failed to arrest a single smuggler and hoarder.
Now comes the R.A. No. 12022, the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, signed into law by President Marcos Jr. on September 26.
The newly crafted law not only identified the issues and the solutions behind the unchecked problem that seriously hounded the Marcos Jr. administration but also wanted to give the impression that smuggling and hoarding would now be a thing of the past.
But our people have seen too many well-meaning laws passed but their namby-pamby implementation and enforcement by government agencies never helped any. As Rep. Christopher de Venecia correctly pointed out, our present generation of farmers are aging, and their children are turning their back on farming precisely because they see a helpless government that can’t stop smuggling and hoarding to help their parents.
Worse, the Marcos administration even compounded the situation for the farmers when it ordered the importation of millions of tons of rice ostensibly to put the stopper on the spiraling of prices. Unwittingly, that move added salt to the open wounds of farmers and this was manifested by a protest rally staged by a farmers’ group staged last week.
So until the government starts arresting notorious smugglers and hoarders, the R.A. No. 12022 will remain a hollow gesture to our farmers. Another “Your days are numbered” version.
As they say, the test of the pudding is in the eating.
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