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Food security concern crops up over purchase of land by foreigners
Food security concern crops up over purchase of land by foreigners
The procurement and renting of land in rice-producing provinces by some foreigners raised concerns that it may affect the country’s food security in the long run, prompting the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) to coordinate with relevant government agencies to immediately address the issue.
PAOCC executive director Undersecretary Gilberto Cruz said the anti-crime body received reports that some foreigners have been actively buying parcels of land in Nueva Ecija and several other rice-producing provinces, as well as in Palawan facing the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
“We are coordinating with the DAR [Department of Agrarian Reform] and DILG [Department of the Interior and Local Government]. We will give them the information that we received. Perhaps they know the local population in these areas so they can also conduct an investigation,” Cruz said in a radio interview over Teleradyo Serbisyo on Friday, June 28.
According to Cruz, some foreigners would initially rent a portion of a rice field for P80,000 to P100,000 per hectare before they eventually buy the entire land.
“If you’re an ordinary farmer, you’ll be happy because you would earn ‘sure money’. Your one hectare of land will be rented and you will earn from it without even breaking a sweat. But if we look at it in the long run, these foreigners can control what agricultural products can be planted on these lands,” he said.
When this happens, the foreigners would then be able to control the price of the produce, he added.
“Maybe later on, the foreigners can control our food security because they own our lands. It’s a possibility that the dream of our President [Marcos Jr.] to bring down the price of rice may no longer be achieved since the lands are being controlled by the foreigners. This would be a problem,” Cruz said.
Marcos has anchored his presidential campaign on bringing down the price of basic goods, including rice at P20 per kilo. This was enough to get the votes of majority of the Filipinos who elected him to the presidency in 2022.
Article XII (National Economy and Patrimony) of the 1987 Philippine Constitution limits the ownership of private lands to Filipino citizens or corporations with at least 60 percent of the capital shall be owned by Filipino citizens.
“It’s a bit scary but we are already investigating these reports that we received,” Cruz said.