Due to the limited time given to Senatorial candidates to speak during our proclamation rally last night, I was not able to enumerate the various legislative advocacies which I intend to introduce in the Senate.
Let me emphasize that the proposed legislations which I am presenting here, did not come from a group of paid consultants but from deep inside my mind and my heart.
These are products of my engagements with the people whose voices had not been heard and also from my experiences as a poor farm boy who grew to manhood during the most difficult times.
Immediate Legislative Reforms:
1. On Day 1 in the Senate, Review and Amend the Rice Tariffication Law to protect both consumers and the rice farmers from price manipulations and truly boost the rice industry.
2. Reform the Agricultural and Food Marketing System by expanding and strengthening existing government agencies like the National Food Authority and the Food Terminal Inc. to establish government-operated Food Consolidation Centers in the production areas and Food Outlets in major urban centers to reduce the involvement of middlemen and dicers in the marketing and trading of basic food items. This will provide producers a bigger income while ensuring consumers of fresh and affordable food. The NFA mandate should be expanded to assume the role of a marketing agency for the country’s agricultural export commodities, especially Cavendish Banana, Coconut products, Fruits and Aqua-Marine products.
3. Review policies and legislations providing undue advantage to imported food products over those produced locally, especially on rice, pork, chicken, fish and others which adversely affect local producers.
Institutional Legislative Agenda:
2. Establish a multi-agency National Water Conservation and Management Authority to manage our water resources both for household and agricultural uses.
3. Review, Amend and Update the Agri-Agra Law, including the National Fisheries Code, using science-based data and exhaustive consultative processes engaging stakeholders nationwide.
4. Establish an Agricultural Credit Facility, e.g. Bank for Agriculture and Fisheries, which would provide the country’s food and agriculture producers easy access to credit with low interest rates especially for major food production investments, a role which had been abandoned by the Land Bank of the Philippines.
5. Introduce a 10-year Food Production Infrastructure Program to undertake the implementation and completion of key infrastructure projects like the 12,000-kilometer Farm-To-Market Road backlog, rural bridges, Fish Ports complete with post-harvest facilities and Solar-Powered and small irrigation facilities.
6. Introduce a 5-Year National Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Program with the goal of attaining Fish Sufficiency within the period through the establishment of at least three major National Hatcheries and financial incentives for investors in Aqua-Marine production, especially in Fish Cage Farming.
7. Establish a Local Industries Development Authority (LINDA) which would provide support and incentives to pioneering industries which would utilize local resources and create jobs e.g. Steel Processing Industry, Wood Processing Industry, Bamboo Processing Industry, Food Processing Industry and others especially those initiated by farmers and fishermen’s cooperatives or associations.
8. Establish Agro-Industrial Parks for the production of hogs, poultry and livestock to be located in areas where major raw materials for feeds and silage are grown. This would resolve the conflict arising from the presence of these farms in population centers and provide bio-security protection to the hogs, poultry and livestock.
9. In anticipation of the greater demand for power for the massive agro-industrial activities for food production, reforms in laws covering power generation must be introduced, including providing greater autonomy to electric cooperatives and local government units in investing in and operating energy-generation projects, like hydros, solar farms and even wind farms.
10. Craft a 10-Year Nutrition-based Food Production Program where producers of food items which would lower malnutrition are provided with financial incentives like No-Interest production loans and a ready market with fair prices. This program could very well be implemented through the Regional Food Consolidation Centers which would guide the farmers on what to produce based on the nutritional requirements of the people. This in the long run would boost agricultural production, create more jobs while at the same time, address malnutrition in the country and pave the way to a generation of healthy Filipinos.
All of these dreams could be realized if we abandon money and personality-based politics and decide once and for all that we would like to build a better future for our children.
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