By Mario Casayuran
Opposition Senator Francis N. Pangilinan opened the 18th Congress on Monday by filing 10 priority measures focusing on agriculture, environment, and civil service.
Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan (JOHN JEROME GANZON / MANILA BULLETIN)
The bills include the much-delayed Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Act or the Coco Levy Act; bills on post-harvest facilities, organic farming, and expanded crop insurance; National Land Use Act of 2019; establishment of the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and the Department of Disaster and Emergency Management; Rainwater Management Bill; Single-Use Plastic Regulation and Management Act; and the Basic Education Teachers Pay Increase Act.
“We will continue the fight we started even before the 17th Congress. We believe that prioritizing the agriculture sector and increasing the incomes of farmers and fisher folk would help in alleviating poverty and bolstering the economy in rural areas. To support this endeavor, we must also pursue relevant legislations for the environment,” Pangilinan, president of the opposition Liberal Party (LP), said.
In the 17th Congress, Pangilinan’s Sagip Saka Act (Republic Act 11321), a 2016 campaign promise passed into law. It aims to ensure market for farmers’ and fishers’ produce by requiring government programs to buy from accredited farmers’ and fishers’ cooperatives and organizations, removing middlemen who often earn more than the food producers. It exempts government (national agencies and local) from the Procurement Law when they buy directly from these co-ops. It also exempts donors from paying donors tax when making donations such as capital outlay for farm equipment, post-harvest facilities, and agriculture infrastructure, among others, to these organizations.
Panglinan expressed optimism that Congress would approve the Coco Levy Act after President Duterte vetoed it in the 17th Congress.
“Our coconut farmers have been waiting for this for over 40 years. The longer they are not able to access the fund, the longer they live in poverty,’’ he explained.
Pangilinan pointed out that the coco levy was imposed on coconut farmers during martial law aimed at benefitting the contributors, “but instead benefited only the cronies of the late dictator Marcos who managed the fund that has grown to about P80 billion.’’
Pangilinan’s Coco Levy Act is the first of the five agriculture bills he is pushing in the 18th Congress. It aims to establish a trust fund to be utilized by coconut farmers and the coconut industry. It will also mechanisms for the disposition of some coco levy assets, management and utilization of the available coco levy funds, providing coconut farmers a say on how the fund will be managed, invested, allocated, and utilized.
Among the other agriculture bills that the senator will file are the Post-Harvest Facilities Support Act which aims to improve the lowering of post-harvest production losses, and the Expanded Crop Insurance Act which will increase the mandatory crop insurance especially during recurring disasters and calamities.
Pangilinan is also filing an amendment to the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010, which aims to help ensure that the needs of the small holder farmers and farm workers are met.
“Progress in food production should be measured not in the volume of production, but in whether or not the agricultural workers’ life has improved. The benchmark should be the income of farmers and fisher folk. Only then would we know that our people are benefiting from our reforms,” Pangilinan said.
“We need to harvest abundance for our farmers and fisher folk. When this happens, all will harvest an abundant future,” he added.