Punchline
When farmers lose P100-M
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
HERE we go again. The national and local governments continue to issue statements, giving estimates about the millions worth of losses in agricultural products in the provinces battered by Typhoons Karen and Lawin.
As usual, the reports were incomplete and inaccurate. Lost in the translation and estimates is the fact that it was not the government nor the populace but the thousands of farmers that directly suffered the losses. Yes, only the farmers!
Imagine what an estimated P100 million in losses in agriculture alone mean to the farmers! For government, it simply warns that that supply of basic goods will see shortages and can lead to higher prices. It’s really an advisory for consumers, nothing for farmers whose farmlands are wasted by mud and floodwaters.
Here’s what the P100-M in losses mean in real terms. Our farmers 1)Will be paying higher interests to loan sharks because they failed to pay their debts, again! 2) Cannot hope to recover from their losses unless they are granted new loans by loan sharks pegged on a higher interest rate, 3) They will have little or no food on their table until the next harvest (and hopefully no typhoon will wipe them out again).
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PLANTING RICE IS NEVER FUN. I have long espoused for a law that will protect our farmers from the severe impact of climate change, a mandatory crop insurance law to cover at least beneficiaries of the agrarian reform law.
If our farmers continue to carry the burden of producing rice and vegetables with no support from our government, then let us prepare for a worse consequence – there will be lesser farmers that will produce our food in the decades ahead.
As things stand today, we are already seeing a large decline in the number of children of farmers wanting to continue to tend to small family farmlands. The old postwar folk song “Planting rice is never fun” has become a cold and cruel reality to the farmers’ children. Seeing how their parents sank deeper in debt every year with no alternative but to turn to loan sharks, is enough for them to opt for another livelihood.
A quick check with our national agriculture schools will also show that we are seeing less enrollees and graduates each year. Even imparting advanced technology cannot help motivate even the more enterprising students because they cannot protect themselves against losses from the unrelenting impact of climate change – severe typhoons, flooding, insects, etc.
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A LEGACY. I recall that former 4th District Cong. Gina de Venecia filed a bill on crop insurance for farmers in the House of Representatives in the last congress.
I strongly suggest to her son, now Cong. Toff de Venecia, to re-file her bill and lobby for its early passage. His touted program of promoting eco-and agri-tourism will come to naught if there are no more farmers tilling our farmlands, when most farmlands are already converted to commercial/land development.
Offhand, I believe a socialized form of premium payments (through the partnership of LGUs and Crop Insurance Corp.) made available to small farmers who are tilling three hectares and below can greatly help and motivate our farmers and their children to continue farming. Success stories have already come out of Isabela where some farms have been covered by crop insurance through the initiatives of their local governments. They are benefitting today from it.
And, while the farmers were suffering, the Crop Insurance Corp of the government has been reporting millions of surplus income from its operations and investments. Instead of paying out insurance claims, it is busy functioning like an investment arm because very few are availing of its service.
The lobby and passage of a Crop Insurance for agrarian law beneficiaries is right along Cong Toff’s alley as a legislator. He doesn’t have to beg, appeal and negotiate for funds for infra projects in the province, a function best left to the LGU executives. In fact, if he can lead Pangasinan legislators to rally behind it, that will be his best legacy yet for the revered De Venecia name in the halls of Congress.
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STILL PROTECTING ILLEGAL FISH PENS. Here we go again also with the Dagupan City’s three-year-old campaign against illegal fish pens in the city’s rivers.
I refer to the insistence of City Agriculturist Emma Molina to spare the 63 illegal fish pens from demolition all because the owners claim their fish pens are situated in parts of the river that were originally covered by Torrens titles. She’s been at it since 2013! Why former City Legal Officer George Mejia (and subsequently Mayor Belen Fernandez) agreed to support her position all these years is beyond me.
Our laws state that the claim of ownership of parts of the river can never take precedence over the effects of both a national law and a local ordinance. This was asserted by City Environment and Resources Officer Engr. Raymundo Gayo during a televised executive session of Mayor Belen with department heads early on. He cited the national law that when a portion of a private land recedes to a river due to natural accretion, that portion covered by the river becomes public domain. He cited it in response to the onerous situation where a barangay official was issued a tax declaration by the city assessor for a portion in the middle of the Pantal River!
Then, a highly respected legal practitioner also pointed to Articles 457 and 462 of the Civil Code that stipulate that registered private land is not protected from natural accretions.
So, even assuming for the sake of argument that for some reason that the claim is deemed legitimate, the owner of the land still cannot find protection from the city ordinance that established that operation of fish pens in any part of the city’s river is illegal.
In a bid to clarify these issues, I had a phone conversation with the Atty. Vicky Cabrera, the city’s new no-nonsense city legal officer, before our press deadline. And I was encouraged by her opinion that a fish pen, considered as illegal structure inside the city’s river, should be demolished in compliance with the city ordinance and the deadline set by Mayor Belen.
This being the case, if Molina will still insist on protecting and sparing the illegal fish pens after 3 years, she will be inviting a case of graft against her and Mayor Belen before the Ombudsman for refusing to enforce the law and the city ordinance. She can check this with Atty. Cabrera.
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NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS. It’s been more than two months now since the province heard from Board Member Jinky Zaplan about the mandatory drug tests for barangay officials as called for by the resolution she filed as head of the Federation of Liga nga Barangay in Pangasinan.
In fact, she has been silent about her announced drug tests for the barangays in her own town, Sta. Barbara. She explained that the delay in implementing her plans in Sta. Barbara was due to efforts to find a cheaper drug test kit. Three weeks ago, she later told local media that she found a cheaper kit and her husband, Mayor Carlito Zaplan was ready to implement it. Well, no news is bad news!
The board member should be made aware that she risks incurring the ire of PDU30 for not being honest and cooperative in his war on drugs. In fact, she and her husband will have a lot of explaining to do if a number of her barangay officials in the town are included in the dreaded list of drug pushers and users.
For her and her husband’s sakes, it would be to their advantage and benefit if they preempt PDU30’s revelation of who among their barangay officials are into the drug trade. Their failure to identify who the drug pushers and distributors will lead to suspicion that they are protecting the drug trade in Sta. Barbara.
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