Category: The Economy

Baboying pork

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

Agri producers, hog raisers call for probe on smuggling of “expired” imported meat

Philippine agricultural producers and hog raisers called on national government officials to probe the alleged smuggling of at least six million kilos of “expired” imported meat that did not pass the country’s required quarantine tests and food safety examinations.

The Samahan ng Agrikulturang Industriya (SINAG) said conflicting data from two government agencies, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), point to the possibility that at least six million of “expired” imported pork are now in the Philippine market.

SINAG said data they have obtained from sources in the BOC showed that the agency released 121.6 million kilos of imported pork from January to June this year but official figures from the BAI showed that only 116 million kilos passed through quarantine inspection, pointing at the possibility that 5.6 million kilos are “unaccounted for.”

Vicente Mercado, chairman of the National Federation of Hog Farmers, Inc., said the director of the BIA and all meat imported should “come forward and disclose the amount of meat they imported this year.”

He added that they should also release other important data like the dates of arrival, quarantine inspection certificates, the places where the importations were brought, and the names of companies or restaurant chains that received the imports.

SINAG chairperson Rosendo So, on the other hand, called on Agriculture Sec. Proceso Alcala and BOC Commissioner John Philip Sevilla to probe the alleged missing imported pork. “Bakit nakakalabas sa BOC ng walang quarantine clearance at bakit walang quarantine officer to check on the imported meat?”

(“Why were these released by the BOC without quarantine clearance and why was there no quarantine officer to check on the imported meat?”)

Mercado said their discovery about the missing “expired” imported pork comes at “critical period” after a group of meat importers said that is alright for the public to eat expired meat as long as these are frozen.

“These meat importers have no business in the food industry as they pose the greatest threat to our public health security. Kung gusto nila, sila na lang ang kumain at ‘wag na idamay ang pamilya at mga anak natin,” So said.

He also pointed out that the meat importers’ position is alarming, coming as it is in the face of the recent expired meat scandal in China where the Shanghai Husi Company was found to be supplying expired meat to several fast-food chains.

Pork is one of the agricultural commodities that are being smuggled into the Philippines. A study funded by the Department of Agriculture and the results of which were released this year showed that agriculture produce being smuggled into the country is valued at $10 billion yearly.

The study, titled “An Assessment of Smuggling of Selected Agricultural Commodities in the Philippines,” also showed that agricultural smuggling evolved into a big-time illegal trade starting in the 1980s.

President Aquino, in a message delivered by Agriculture Sec. Alcala last April 2014, assured hog-raisers that the government is committed to ending meat smuggling.

“We have been directing our government offices especially the DA to intensify its efforts in impeding meat smuggling to give local hog raisers the opportunity to gain better incomes,” he said.

Farmers hungry while world eats beyond its means

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

by Julius D. Mariveles

THE WORLD is already eating way beyond its means, yet those who produce the food barely have enough to eat.

This dual layer of ironies was highlighted during the Responsible Business Forum on Food and Agriculture in Manila this week, as experts from around the world emphasized how growing consumer food demands are far and fast outpacing the ability of the world’s natural resources to provide this need.

The challenge, says World Wildlife Fund-Philippines president Lory Tan, is to find ways to produce more food while using up even less resources such as land and water.

Tan cited the country as an example in showing the pressure that people are placing on the natural resources of the world that would be compounded by problems brought about by climate change and water scarcity. In the face of the need for food, participants discussed the need to improve agricultural productivity while improving rural livelihood and reducing its impact on the environment.

“We are eating ourselves up; (the Philippines) sits 117 percent beyond our natural capital,” Tan said as he opened the two-day forum that gathered representatives from various agricultural sectors and business leaders throughout Asia.

Resources persons underscored the need to rethink food production. Jason Clay, senior vice-president, Markets and Food of the World Wildlife Foundation-USA cited as an example the growing of cattle for beef, which takes up 60 percent of land yet only provides for 1.3 percent of the total needed calories.

Tan and Clay said the answer to this problem is not to use more resources such as land for food production, but rather to find more efficient ways to produce the food that more people really need. In addition, both cited the need for people to be more efficient in their consumption of food, as a significant percentage of the food produced is really just wasted because of the nature of a consumer-driven society.

At the same time, experts noted how this growing food consumption is not reflected in the plight of those who have a direct hand in food production – the farmers.

Sec. Francis Pangilinan, presidential assistant on food and agricultural modernization, pointed out that Philippine farmers remain among the poorest of the poor.

Coconut farmers, for example, earn only an average of P23,000 a year, or not even P2,000 a month.

This, even as food prices have risen by 7.4 percent, or well above the inflation rate of 4.4 percent, Pangilinan said.

Key Statistics On Agriculture

Even as the Gross Domestic Product of the Philippines rose last year, the second fastest-growing in Asia next to China, 20 out of 100 Filipinos remain hungry while four million households or at least 20 million Filipinos cannot feel the growth and do not have enough food, he added.

“We should treat our farmers like our parents,” Pangilinan quoted his own young daughter as saying. Pangilinan said people should place more importance on farmers, perhaps even more than lawyers and engineers, since people rely on the output of farmers three times a day, compared to the few times that people need lawyers in their lifetime.

Among the agricultural commodities addressed during the open and working group discussions were rice, poultry, fisheries and aquaculture, palm oil, coffee and cocoa, and sugar.

Juan Farinati, vice-president for Asia of Monsanto Corporation, said that there should also be a focus on “innovation and partnerships” that would lead to producing more food with less resources.

He cited the case of Vietnam where farmers have shifted to corn from other crops and were able to export it only a year using Monsanto bio-engineered seeds that increased the income of farmers to more than US$400 per hectare.

Aside from the shift to other crops, Matthew Morell, deputy director general for research of the International Rice Research Institute, said there is also a need to improve production systems like moving to mechanized farming to boost yield.

He added genetics would play a “strong role” in improving rice strains that would have higher yields.

Guy Hogge, head of sustainability of Louis Dreyfus Commodities, on the other hand, said farmers in rural areas might not have access to markets as he raised the need for government intervention in agriculture.

Sugar, on the other hand, once the biggest export commodity of the Philippines, was described by Sugar Regulatory Administration Gina Martin-Bautista as a “game changer” because it can be used to branch out to other industries like bio-water and bio-plastics because it is a “green commodity” or environment-friendly.

Bautista, however, pointed out that Thailand, which learned sugar production from the Philippines, has outstripped the country in terms of production.

Second only to Brazil in terms of sugar production, Thailand now has more than one million hectares planted to the crop compared to the Philippines’ 420,000 hectares.

Yet while Thailand only has double the hectarage devoted to sugar compared to the Philippines, it is producing more than four times the sugar output, or 11 million metric tons for Thailand compared to the Philippines’ 2.5 million metric tons.

Amid the problems posed by climate change and limited resources, Pangilinan said, using the words of his then nine-year-old child, that “we must treat farmers like our parents” because “we need them on a daily basis” for us to eat.

He also said that if the country’s framework for sustainable agriculture must put farmers, fisherfolk, and agricultural first, integrated environmental care and preservation and must show “new way of doing things” while going back to basics.

 

‘Grossly inaccurate’ DAP reports? Abad and DBM grossly opaque

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MORE THAN an act of contrition or an apology, a simple act of transparency and a firm gesture of accountability on how the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) funds were disbursed is what the Department of Budget and Management owes the Filipino people, at the very least.

In particular, the full details of which ‘high-impact” projects had been funded, which “slow-moving” projects had been discontinued, and which agencies gained or lost from the multi-billion-peso DAP.

Until DAP came along, transparency and accountability were words in vogue at the DBM under Secretary Florencio ‘Butch’ Abad. It must now walk the talk to show proof of what it claims to be “good faith” in how it disbursed DAP monies.

But today, July 4, two days after the Supreme Court voted unanimously to declare as unconstitutional certain provisions and acts committed under DAP, the DBM has managed only a hem-and-haw, evade-avoid play.

In a press statement issued at about 6 p.m. today, the Public Information Unit under the Office of the DBM Secretary said that “the reported total of P352.7 billion made at the disposal of the Executive branch through DAP in just two years is grossly inaccurate.”

The statement said that. “DBM records as of December 31, 2013 show that only a total of P136.75 billion—P65.59 billion under the 2011 National Budget (R.A. 10147) and P71.16 billion under the 2012 National Budget (R.A. 10155)—was made available to fund high-impact priority projects under the DAP for the mentioned years.”

It added that, “the total amount actually used from this available fund, which was P114.58 billion, is even much lower than the P352.7 billion reported.”

The DBM went on to point out many other details that the news media got wrong. For instance, it clarified:

* “The reported P133 billion worth of overall savings allotted for DAP for 2011 to 2012″ was wrong. DBM records “reflect overall savings of only P119.11 billion comprised of P52.35 billion and P66.76 billion for the 2011 and 2012 Budgets, respectively.”

* “It must be noted that only a total of P19.69 billion were pooled through National Budget Circular No. 541, which only pertains to unobligated allotments withdrawn from different National Government Agencies.”

* “The reported P219.73 billion generated from unprogrammed funds for the two years was just a projection. Only P17.64 billion was actually released for DAP-funded projects according to DBM records.”

* “The inaccuracy in the reported figure for the unprogrammed funds may be a misinterpretation of what was presented in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) as projections versus what was available and what was actually used.”

* “For the record, windfall revenues for 2011 and 2012 only amounted to P18.3 billion and P13.92 billion, respectively, for a total of P32.22 billion. That was the total available fund, not P219.73 billion which was the projection in the 2011 and 2012 GAAs. Of the P32.22 billion, only P17.64 billion of unprogrammed funds were released and utilized for DAP-funded projects.”

So, other than claiming “good faith,” in disbursing DAP, the DBM is telling us that we must trust that it gets its figures right, to the last peso?

But if it truly does, it is fair to assume it also knows full well the details of which projects were funded, by how much, and why, under DAP.

How could people grant the DBM the benefit of doubt that it acted in “good faith” when to this day, it refuses to disclose the full and final list of projects funded with DAP monies?

The DBM has only itself to blame for the “grossly inaccurate” reports because to this day it remains grossly opaque about how it had disbursed DAP funds.

Nine months ago on Oct. 16, 2013, the PCIJ had filed a request with Abad for data and documents covering DAP-funded projects.

In particular, the PCIJ sought information about:

* The list of projects funded under the P85.5-billion DAP (as of 2011), including the location of the project, date of release of the fund, name of endorsing legislator or implementing unit, and the status of the project;

* The list of the projects, including the location of the project and implementing unit, identified in FY 2011 and FY 2010 as “slow-moving projects and programs for discontinuance” that became one of the sources of funds for DAP;

* The list of budget items for realignment in FY 2011 that became one of the sources of funds for the DAP; and

* The list of the “unexpected remittance of dividends from GOCCs, Government Financial Institutions, and sale of government assets.”

On the same day, Oct. 16, 2013, Charisse-Fuschia A. Paderna, head of Abad’s PIO, replied to PCIJ: “The technical team in charge of compiling and verifying the data (was) still finalizing the list to clear it of all possible inaccuracies.”

She assured that the DBM “(would) release the list to all media contacts once every detail has been validated and confirmed.”

PCIJ made subsequent follow-ups and on January 24, 2014, Paderna said that she “(was) still waiting for word from the offices that could best answer (our) questions.”

On Thursday, July 3, PCIJ reminded Paderna that the DBM had not acted on the request for data and documents covering DAP projects that PCIJ filed nine months ago.

Paderna’s more extended reply offered an oblique excuse. She wrote: “I’m very sorry for not addressing your previous queries on DAP; we’ve been quite busy this year — as you might imagine — and I may have forgotten that I hadn’t given you feedback on your request.”

“As much as we want to assist you now, we still can’t provide meaningful comment on all questions related to DAP. We received the SC ruling only yesterday, and we, of course, want to study the decision closely before reaching out to our media partners,” Paderna said.

“For a good while, we were unable to provide a list of the DAP projects, as the SC (was) still deliberating the matter and we did not wish to influence the outcome of the case, whether that decision worked in our favor or not.”

But because of the high court’s decision, Paderna said the DBM is “now similarly constrained.”

Why so? “Because the SC emphasized that the DAP was only partially unconstitutional, we need to approach the full text of the decision very carefully.”

How much time it will take the DBM to study the Supreme Court’s decision is unclear. According to Paderna, “This will take some time, since the DBM is currently preoccupied with the preparation of the 2015 budget; all units — especially Secretary Abad’s office — are working round the clock with agencies and stakeholders so we can meet the deadline for the submission of our proposed budget to Congress.”

The PCIJ told Paderna that all that had been requested are data and documents on the DAP-funded projects, and not the DBM’s opinion on the high court’s ruling.

The typically media-savvy Abad knew about the email and phone calls exchanged between PCIJ and Paderna’s office. Yet still, he has kept mum about DAP.

With its latest press statement blaming the media for filing “grossly inaccurate” reports, the DBM demonstrated to one and all that it has full information on the total disbursements and sources of funds for DAP, down to the last digit.

Indeed, how could it be correct about its sums if it does not know the parts that make up the sums?

Good faith? That’s a tough request to grant, for as long as the DBM remains totally opaque and evasive about the full details of DAP.

It is not gross inaccuracy to say that until the DAP fiasco, transparency, accountability, and good governance are de riguer principles that the DBM under Abad has espoused, in both theory and practice.

Good faith? Why can’t the DBM just stick to script? The least it owes the people is to claim and live by its mantra: Transparency, accountability, and good governance.

The news media has become “grossly inaccurate” because in large measure the DBM has refused to disclose which projects had been funded and discontinued, which fund sources had been realigned and looped in, and which legislators or agencies gained or lost from the humongous unconstitutional creature that is DAP. – PCIJ

Social Watch questions gov’t poverty stats

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

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A CIVIL SOCIETY GROUP advocating citizens’ participation in public finance has challenged the Aquino administration’s latest poverty statistics that tend to show a significant cut in poverty rates.

Social Watch Philippines convenor Prof. Marivic Raquiza said the latest announcement of the Philippine Statistics Authority that poverty incidence dropped from 27.9 percent in 2012 to 24.9 percent in the first half of 2013 was both confusing and misleading.

For one, it seems that the government has suddenly shifted in the kind of statistics it uses in order to measure poverty.

“This is the first time that the Annual Poverty Indicator Survey (APIS) has been used as basis for official poverty figures. In the past, poverty incidence has been officially measured by the authorities using the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES),” Raquiza said.

The FIES provides data on both family income and expenditures, and includes details such as levels of consumption by item and sources of income. Social Watch says FIES “specifically discusses levels of living and disparities in income and spending patterns of families.”

SWP_2
Data from Philippine Statistics Authority shows drop in poverty levels

On the other hand, the APIS is a nationwide survey “that presents data on the socioeconomic profile of Filipino families, and other information that relates to their living conditions.”

The results of the surveys from APIS is annual while the FIES is every three years.

Raquiza said she wonders if government would have been able to report the same rosy figures had it used the FIES, as it always had in the past.

“Announcements about poverty data must be made with more clarity and transparency, especially about assumptions and methods used in its measurements of poverty. In particular, we wonder, if the data from FIES is utilized, would we still see a significant decline in poverty incidence,” Raquiza asked.

Social Watch lead convenor Prof. Leonor Magtolis Briones concurs with Raquiza and criticizes the country’s supposed rapid six to seven per cent Gross Domestic Product growth in recent years calling it a “non-inclusive and jobless” growth.

“Poverty incidence remains high in spite of this growth. Unemployment is still at 7.5 per cent and underemployment at 19.5 per cent,” said Briones.

While the Philippine Development Plan of the Aquino administration is correct in pointing out that its main task is to generate inclusive growth, this has not come into fruition halfway into Aquino’s term, Briones added.

 

Tiempo Muerto, Tiempo Suerte?

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

CUARESMA, or Holy Week is the time when Filipinos reflect on the agony of Jesus Christ. It is also the time when the mamumugon – the workers in the vast haciendasor plantations of Negros Occidental – slip into a suspended state between life and death, a seeming purgatory on earth.

This is Tiempo Muerto, the dead season in the Philippines’ sugar bowl, a period between the planting and harvesting of sugarcane. It lasts from April until August, and is a season that the sugar plantation workers dread more than the typhoons that enter the country also around this period.

Cuaresma, of course, ends with the celebration of Kristo conquering death, heaven imposing its desire on earth. But Tiempo Muerto may soon last more than the usual four months in Negros Occidental with the impending implementation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) in 2015 – if some sugar industry insiders and observers are proven correct.

Should that happen, the province and many of its sugar farmers who ignored the summons of the 1985 sugar crisis to reform, innovate, and be more competitive, would be largely to blame.

AFTA will bring the tariff on sugar imported from the 10 ASEAN member-countries down from 10 percent this year to five percent next year. ASEAN includes Thailand, the second largest exporter of sugar in the world after Brazil.

Yet what could be bitter pill for the sugar industry may actually turn into a sweet treat for most Filipinos who are all consumers of sugar and sugar-based food and other products. What may be Tiempo Muerto to Negros’ sugar producers could even spellTiempo Suerte to most Filipinos who are sugar consumers.

Tariff cuts, scholars say, may cause transitory pain for some sectors but the positive overall effect is to help the economy by lowering prices for consumers, and even cutting poverty incidence by 0.285 percentage points.

In the newest offering of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, senior journalist Julius D. Mariveles writes about the politics of the economy of Negros Occidental, a land whose history, politics, culture, and economy have long remained wrapped around the sugar cane.

Mariveles is a senior journalist who has worked in both print broadcast media in Negros Occidental for over 15 years. He now joins PCIJ as one of its multimedia producers.