By Butch Fernandez & Mary Grace Padin
THE Department of Agriculture (DA) on Monday said it has yet to receive the P2.11-billion supplemental budget it requested from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for the implementation of its El Niño mitigation plan.
But even without the additional budget, Agriculture Undersecretary Emerson Palad said the DA is ready to put in place additional measures to help farmers cope with the ill effects of El Niño.
Palad also said that, prior to the protest and dispersal of farmers in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato, last week, the DA has provided assistance to them. The farmers had asked the government to give them 15,000 sacks of rice and free planting materials after the drought devastated their crops.
“Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala, together with the local government unit [LGU], has visited North Cotabato twice. He directly distributed farm interventions to the local farmers prior to the incident,” he said in a news briefing on Monday.
Earlier, the DA said Alcala has turned over more than P2.4 billion worth of projects to farmers’ groups and LGUs during his visit in Alabel, Sarangani and Kidapawan City, North Cotabato, in February. Aside from production support, Palad said the DA also provides irrigation support, such as cloud seeding and rehabilitation of small water-impounding projects, and distributes information material regarding El Niño.
He said a total of P3.64 billion worth of farm interventions have already been given by the DA to help farmers. Palad added that this budget came from the regular DA fund. In the meantime, Palad said the DA will tap its quick-response fund (QRF) for areas under state of calamity because of El Niño.
Of the P57 million QRF allocated for El Niño mitigation, Palad said P9.6 million was given to Region 9; P16.15 million for Region 12 (which covers North Cotabato); and P31.7 million for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Despite saying that the DA has already provided production support to the farmers of North Cotabato, Palad refused to comment on the probable reasons the farmers of Kidapawan City staged a protest rally. He also said the DA can only give production support to the farmers, and not food assistance.
“The DA’s mandate is to help farmers produce rice, but we cannot provide food assistance. I think even the National Food Authority can’t give rice,” Palad said.
For their part, senators said they will ask Budget Secretary Florencio Abad to explain the reported nonrelease in March of P900-million assistance to farmers that is part of the total P19-billion allotted by the government for El Niño-affected farm sectors. Sen. Serge Osmeña indicated Abad will “very likely” be asked about it when the DBM chief is summoned at the upcoming hearings of a separate Senate inquiry into the killing of rallying farmers who blocked a major highway in Mindanao to protest government inaction to cushion the economic impact of El Niño.
“The Senate will definitely look into that massacre,” Osmeña told the BusinessMirror.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III confirmed in a separate text message that he, too, is demanding an explanation from authorities concerned. Among others, senators are keen to know from Aquino administration officials if the timely release of the already approved P900-million assistance to farmers could have averted the bloody confrontation between protesting farmers and police authorities in the El-Niño-affected region.
Image credits: Mau Victa