So many nasty things had been said about the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos and the claimed brutality of his 21-year reign but there is no debate that he had ideas in agriculture and food supply stability which were well ahead of his time.
The concept of establishing a food supply consolidation, processing and distribution center in the Metro Manila area for goods coming from the provinces was one of those “advance ideas” that President Marcos had.
His aim was to revolutionise the agricultural sector of the country by establishing through a Presidential Decree a food consolidation center called the Greater Manila Terminal Food Market (GMTFM).
The estate was renamed to Food Terminal Incorporated (FTI) on 27 March 1974 and the company’s major activities included warehousing, food processing, research and quality control, marketing services, and trading.
The FTI was later transferred to the National Food Authority as one of its subsidiaries but with the change of power in 1986, it fell victim to the politics of unreasonable vindictiveness which victimized even the most critical and useful government programs.
By 1989, food trading and food processing operations, including live animal slaughtering, of the FTI were suspended followed by the closure of the cold storage services were also suspended in 2004.
The lack of foresight and appreciation of the critical importance of the FTI led to several attempts by previous administrations to sell off part of the property, including a public auction in 2009, but they all failed.
In November 2012, the Philippine government announced the sale of the 74 hectares of the 120 hectares property to Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) for P24.3 billion.
When the NFA was transferred back to the DA in September 2018, along with it the FTI, I summoned the FTI officials to my office to discuss the plan to revive the FTI in Greater Metro Manila Area and to establish at least six more Regional Food Terminals all over the country.
Led by retired general Raymundo Ferrer, it was planned that by 2030, the FTI should be able to operate the Regional Food Terminals so that farmers and fisherfolk and other agricultural producers will be freed from the difficult task of accessing the market.
The plan, however, was again placed in a limbo, just like the Solar-Powered Irrigation System (SPIS) and the National Fertilizer Loaning Program, following my resignation as Agriculture Secretary in Aug. 2019.
In my briefings for the Presidential hopefuls, however, I emphasized the strategic importance of the Regional Food Terminals in critical production areas of the country, especially following our experience on logistics difficulties caused by restrictions on movement imposed during the COVID 19 Pandemic.
The Regional Food Terminals concept initiated by President Marcos almost 60 years ago could even be made more effective in assuring stable food supply through the use of modern digital communications technology which would determine the correct positioning and distribution of food supplies all over the country.
There are two very important lessons to be learned from this story.
First, the need for food is constant and this should be the most important focus of government.
Second, personality and color-inspired politics is detrimental to the well-being and progress of the nation.
Imagine how far our country could have gone in ensuring sufficient and affordable food supply for our people had our succeeding political leaders not demonized such brilliant ideas as Masagana 99 and the Food Terminal Concept.
#PoliticsBeyondColors!
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!
(File photos of FTI were downloaded from the public websites. Other photos show me as then Secretary of Agriculture in a huddle with FTI executives led by Gen. Raymundo Ferrer.)
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