Senator Cynthia Villar on Tuesday, April 27, warned the Department of Agriculture (DA) not to underestimate cartels reportedly cornering pork imports.
‘’The DA has no love for farmers. No affinity. I feel for them,’’ Villar said quoting farmers who had complained of the agency's slow reaction to their problems.
Villar made the remarks during the hybrid hearing by the Senate constituted as a Committee of the Whole to investigate shortfalls in pork supply resulting from from the prolonged outbreak of African swine fever (ASF).
She said she is wondering why there are 10 importers being given "special treatment" by the DA and, as chairwoman of the Senate agriculture and food committee, she does not know them.
‘’Who are these importers?’’ she asked.
‘’There is always that cartel such as in rice where importations are not always dictated by the law of supply and demand,’’ Villar, a businesswoman, said.
Villar told Department of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez that hog farmers get the smallest amount of help from the government.
She blamed the continued presence of ASF in the country on the DA which had no disease controls and is giving more benefits to importers.
Villar related an incident where she helped a local hog farmers at a government unit (LGU) near Las Pinas city by asking that LGU to advance the price of pigs culled due to ASF infections and that it took the DA weeks to reimburse the money.
Without indemnification from government, poor farmers would have secretly slaughtered the pigs and sold the ASF-infected meat to unsuspecting consumers, she added.
‘’That’s the reality in the hog industry. There are also cartels in the industry,’’ she told Dominguez.
Dar took exception to Villar’s statements.
He said the DA’s love for hog farmers is there but its love for the country that has millions of citizens is greater. ‘’The greater good for the greater number,’’ he added.
Dar said he is taking exceptions that the DA is manipulating its data, stressing that its data are based on figures of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and its own analyses.
‘’We are not data manipulating. I take exceptions ..this is uncalled for,’’ he said, adding that facts show that the DA has looked after the interest of the farmers.
Dar stressed that it is the third time he has appeared before the committee and has submitted its position supporting the Executive Order 128 that is only temporary in nature.