One year ago today! “ON TO A NEW BATTLEFIELD BUT FIGHTING SAME ENEMY”

On this day, August 5, exactly one year ago today, I moved to my new assignment as Chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) leaving behind a mammoth agency, the Department of Agriculture.

My transfer came 40 days after I submitted my resignation to President Rody Duterte as Secretary of Agriculture following my public disagreements with the members of the Economic Team of the administration on several policy issues, the most controversial of which was the Rice Tariffication Law which allowed the unimpeded entry of imported rice.

After one year, I believe I owe it to the people who have followed my career as a public servant to give them an idea of what really pushed me to resign from the DA.

There were groups who wanted me out saying that I was incompetent and that the bad performance of the Agriculture sector would affect the public approval for the administration.

They even went to the extent of sowing intrigue that I made billions as Secretary of Agriculture, a canard that was thrashed after I volunteered to undergo a 7-month lifestyle check by the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC).

The PACC cleared me and the Chairman, Dante Jimenez, even said in jest: “Dapat ang kaso mo, Unexplained Poverty kasi ang dami mong position na hinawakan, wala ka pa ring pera.”

I believe that the greatest accolade I received as a public servant came from President Duterte himself when he was asked whether I was involved in corruption.

“No, Manny is not corrupt. He is only talkative,” the President said and that statement I will treasure for the rest of my life.

I decided to leave the Department because I believed that staying on even when I was at odds with the key economic and development planners of government and a powerful legislator would have been detrimental to the interests of the agriculture stakeholders.

When the President appointed me as Secretary of Agriculture, it was the most fulfilling moment in my life as a public servant, a farmer and a descendant of farmers.

I dreamed of that day when an ordinary farmer’s voice would be heard and his dreams and aspirations crafted into institutional programs to lift him out of poverty.

It was only later when I discovered that simple dreams are not simply realized because of the bureaucratic limitations and interests of powerful groups.

In my last meeting with members of the Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF), a policy-making body where the different sectors are represented, I reminded them of a promise I made when I assumed the position as Secretary of Agriculture.

“When the time comes when I could no longer stand up and defend the interests of the Filipino farmer, I will bow out,” I told them.

Honestly, I felt bad that I was not able to realize all of the things which I wanted to do for the Filipino farmer and fisherman.

Of course, there were milestones achieved in the short three years like the Free Irrigation Act, the Easy Loan Access, the Anti-Poverty Program called SAAD, the introduction of digital agriculture production map, the Solar-Powered irrigation system, the historic highest rice harvest of 19.28-Million metric tons in 2017 and 19.04-M in 2018 and an Agriculture Growth in 2017 of 3.9% which was the highest in over a decade.

Many more could have been done had the economic and development planners gone out of their air-conditioned rooms and checked the reality on the ground.

It was disappointing and frustrating but I am a government worker, a public servant and a fighter. I do not believe in quitting.

I have no regrets and I am too old to hold grudge and rancor. I fully understand the realities of life.

Now, I am assigned to a new battlefield, smaller perhaps, but still facing the same enemy I identified when I was Secretary of Agriculture – Poverty in the countryside, Productivity to ensure food for the country, and a better life for the Filipino people.

For me, it is not the size of the battlefield that matters but the quality of the fight that one gives to win the war.

#FullSupportForPresidentDuterte!

#PublicServiceIsFullCommitment!

#FightingPovertyThruProductivity!

(There is a wide battlefield in front of us as exemplified by these vast uncultivated lands in Bukidnon while the country imports food and the poor looks for a chance to earn a living. Photos by Mayette Tudlas.)