First Big Boost! 200,000-Member Free Farmers Supports Piñol Senatorial Bid

The 200,000-member Federation of Free Farmers of the Philippines early today pledged its all-out support for our bid to represent the agriculture sector in the Senate in the May 2022 elections.

Shortly after I posted early this morning my official statement on the decision to seek a Senate Seat in next year’s election, former Agriculture Secretary and FFF Board Chairman Leonardo Montemayor, called me up at about 5 a.m. to pledge the support of one of the country’s biggest aggrupation of farmers cooperatives, associations and federations.

“That is the right decision. Everybody is excited,” Sec. Montemayor told me during our conversation.

The FFF and its youth movement, the Junior Free Farmers of the Philippines of which I was a member when I was a young student, had opposed the unimpeded importation of rice implemented under the Rice Tariffication Law including other anti-agriculture policies pushed by the Economic Managers led by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez.

Later today, the FFF issued a press statement which I am attaching to this post:

“BIG FARMERS GROUP SUPPORTS PIÑOL’S SENATE BID

(October 4, 2021)

A major farmers’ organization has expressed full support for the senatorial candidacy of Mindanao Development Authority Chairman Emmanuel “Manny” F. Piñol.

The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) cited Piñol’s excellent rapport with agricultural stakeholders and steadfast stance against large-scale importation of agricultural products during his stint as Secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA) from 2016 to 2019.

According to FFF Board Chairman Leonardo Q. Montemayor: “Piñol sacrificed his DA position rather than surrender to the economic managers of the current administration, who inundated the rice industry with unlimited quantities of imported rice and thereby seriously undermined the livelihood and incomes of several million farmers.”

Montemayor cited Piñol’s major innovations in the DA, such as the Special Area for Agricultural Development (SAAD) Project, which undertook targeted interventions in the country’s poorest provinces.

Himself a former DA Secretary, Montemayor also mentioned Piñol’s outstanding record in agriculture during the latter’s stint as Provincial Governor of Cotabato from 1998 to 2007.

“During his younger days in his hometown of M’lang, Piñol was an active member of the Junior Free Farmers, the FFF’s youth arm,” Montemayor recalled.”

Thank you very much Ka Leonie, Ka Raul and the whole FFF Family.

I will fight for you and for our farmers, fishermen and workers and with God’s Grace, we will prevail.

#InUnionThereIsStrength!

#NothingImpossibleWithGodsGrace!