The Philippine agriculture sector has been most neglected under the Duterte Administration, with stakeholders mostly bearing the brunt of the government’s pro-importation policy, a group alleged.

Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) Chairman Rosendo So said this government is “brutally unique” for having an agriculture department that it alleged engineered the wanton increase of imports across all agricultural commodities and "arbitrary" reduction in tariffs of agriculture imports.

“The agriculture sector has been the most neglected under this administration,” alleged So.

“There is nothing more tragic for the agriculture sector than to have a government agency mandated to protect local producers doing the exact opposite,” he further said.

So was referring to government policies like the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), which allowed unlimited rice importation in the Philippines, as well as Executive Orders (EO) 135, 134, and 133 issued earlier this year.

EO 135 temporarily lowered import tariff rates for rice coming from non-ASEAN countries, while EO 134 and 133 were meant to encourage the entry of more imported pork in the country.

He also mentioned the country’s agricultural commitments on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which the Department of Agriculture (DA) is also pushing for. Numerous groups of farmers are claiming that DA has not consulted with them regarding RCEP.

“Our clamor for the next government is to work for a permanent shift in the agriculture strategy for a sustainable and much-localized food production to meet staple food demands, thus ensuring that more food is grown where it is needed,” So said.

“Also, make food self-sufficiency and significant rural livelihood opportunities as the explicit starting point of the country’s food and agriculture program,” he added.