Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol—with concern and discontent written all over his face—shared to the media on Wednesday that, of his proposed P213-billion budget for 2018, only P36.4 billion has been approved by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), thus far.
This is even lower than what the Department of Agriculture (DA) got for this year—P45.29 billion—and he is worried that the agency’s major programs to grow the sector would not get the funding they need.
“How do we increase our dairy production? How do we increase onion and garlic production? How do we increase our livestock production?” Piñol lamented.
The agriculture chief did not disclose the reasons behind the agency’s 82-percent budget-proposal cut. He did mention, however, that he would definitely seek a reconsideration, especially since it was President Duterte himself who promised him that the DA would get a much higher budget. He would not settle for anything less than P120 billion.
In an interview with reporters in April, Piñol said Duterte assured him of a budget level that is similar to those of the departments of Education, Public Works and Highways, and Health.
What was approved by the DBM, however, thus far is the Tier-1 budget proposal of the DA, representing the money required to sustain the department’s existing activities, projects and programs.
Piñol’s Tier-2 budget proposal—an additional P175 billion, which is the amount needed to fund the department’s new programs or to improve the existing ones—is still under deliberation.
Piñol said he would discuss and make an “appeal” to Sen. Loren B. Legarda, chairman of Senate Committee on Finance, regarding the agency’s 2018 proposed budget, particularly its Tier-2 component. “Actually, I will still talk about that with Senator Legarda…the DA team will sit down with Senator Legarda because I will appeal the Tier-2 budget of DA.”
The agriculture chief disclosed that he would only settle for a minimum budget of P120 billion next year. “From P220 billion that we requested, the worst-case scenario is that our budget would only be P120 billion. That’s the budget that I will fight for because that was the commitment of the President as a support to the DA,” Piñol said. “That’s the minimum that will make me happy.” If the DBM would allocate P120 billion to DA next year, then it would be the biggest funding allocation of the department, excluding the budget for its attached agencies, according to Piñol. Piñol said one of the DA’s priority programs next year is its financing program, dubbed as Production Loan Easy Access, which the agency is asking for a P50-billion funding.
“We are asking for P50 billion for that. But we can split that to P25 billion, but we will decrease the maximum amount that the farmers can borrow,” he said.
Other priority programs of the DA for 2018 include: irrigation systems, livestock program and garlic production, according to Piñol. The DA is seeking a budget of P200 million for its garlic-production program to boost the country’s output by 50 percent within five years.
For 2017 the DBM approved a P45.29-billion budget for the DA, which was 7.46 percent lower than the agency’s 2016 budget of P48.94 billion.