EDITORIAL — Finally, a DA chief
After 16 months of serving concurrently as the secretary of the Department of Agriculture, President Marcos has finally relinquished the post. Yesterday he swore in his campaign donor Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. as DA chief. The shipping tycoon has his work cut out for him.
Since the start of the Marcos administration, among the biggest problems have been food security and other agriculture-related issues. There were supply shortages and consequent price spikes in basic commodities, from sugar to large broilers to onions and, recently, rice. The problems were linked to hoarding, profiteering and low production as well as the continuing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Food inflation has been fueling the high inflation rate. Last year, confectionery and other sweetened food items drove food inflation. The government has yet to provide a satisfactory explanation for the anomalous importation of 440,000 metric tons of refined white sugar at the start of 2023 – a deal awarded to just three lucky entities handpicked by the DA. The importation combined with the start of the sugarcane harvest failed to soften sugar prices.
In the latest inflation figures, the key driver was the spike in rice prices, which an ill-conceived price cap failed to tame. Rice supply has always been a politically sensitive issue in this country, but even more so for President Marcos, who had campaigned for the nation’s top post on a promise of providing rice at P20 a kilo.
Meanwhile, only 11 provinces as of this week can boast of being completely free of African swine fever, which has devastated the country’s hog industry. Domestic producers, however, insist that there is enough pork supply and there is no need for increased importation. What is needed, they say, is to tighten procedures in clearing the entry of imported pork and pork products, which they blame for the spread of ASF.
Laurel, owner of Frabelle Fishing Corp., will be assuming the top DA post amid concerns raised by fishers’ organizations about policies he might pursue that could be detrimental to small-scale fishermen. The marginal fisherfolk are opposing a proposal to allow large commercial fishing boats to enter the municipal waters
