SENATORS Cynthia Villar and Francis Pangilinan on Friday focused on alleviating the plight of the poor, particularly informal settlers and farmers, through government housing initiatives and farm-productivity enhancement.
Citing the inadequate budget of the National Housing Authority for the relocation of informal settlers and families living in hazardous areas, Villar said they should not be made to suffer due to the agency’s underspending.
“It is not the fault of informal settlers if NHA did not perform well and underspent their budget. Families are living in danger zones and they should be relocated to better communities as soon as possible,” Villar said.
Testifying in the Senate briefing of the Development Budget Coordinating Committee on the proposed P3.35-trillion national budget for 2017, Department of Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno said only P12.6 billon will be allocated to NHA for the socialized housing program.
Diokno said the amount will be spent for the resettlement of informal settlers living in danger zones, as well as housing aid for calamity victims.
He disclosed a huge cut in the NHA budget due to underspending of its P30.4 billion for 2016.
Villar noted that in 2010, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority estimated that 2.8 million informal settlers or 556,526 families are in Metro Manila. Of this number, 104,000 families are in areas identified as danger zones, such as railroad tracks, garbage dumps and waterways.
“With flooding becoming more and more massive and widespread, more people need to be relocated to safer ground. This budget is not enough to relocate more people,” Villar said.
Villar, who heads the Senate committee on social justice and rural development, also said relocation sites should allow families to lead safe and decent lives. They should be where the relocatees could find jobs and procure what they need from markets and schools.
Meanwhile, Pangilinan commended the NFA and Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. for the judicious bidding of rice contracts for 250,000 metric tons awarded to Thailand and Vietnam.
However, Pangilinan said the government’s thrust should be rice self-sufficiency or at least improvement of the competitiveness of local agricultural producers.
The imported rice will be used as buffer stock for the coming lean months.
The NFA initially rejected the bid offers of both governments as they were higher than the reference price of $425 per ton. Thailand’s initial offer was $432 a ton for 100,000 MT of rice, while Vietnam offered $432.75 per metric ton for the entire volume. Both Thailand and Vietnam revised their offer to $424.85.
In 2014, the NFA also rejected high bid offers for the first time in 43 years. This resulted in government savings of P7 billion.
Last year, NFA imported around 1.2 million MT of rice in preparation for the El Niño.
Pangilinan was the NFA Council chairman during his stint as the Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization from May 2014 to September 2015.
“We were able to stop price inflation. Judicious importation and distribution resulted in a net profit of P1.8 billion by the end of 2014—a first for the NFA since the 1990s,” recalled Pangilinan.
He earlier cautioned against the abolition of NFA, saying the farmers will find it hard to survive in a market flooded with cheap rice.
“Our top consideration must be our farmers because they will bear the brunt if NFA is abolished. Opening the importation of rice to the private sector will further reduce their already small income, as it will flood the markets with cheap rice,” said Pangilinan, who leads the Senate committee on agriculture and food.
His reaction was in response to news reports that Evasco Jr. will recommend to the President the abolition of three agencies, including the NFA.
For Pangilinan, there needs to be two prerequisites before these actions are considered: farm productivity, and the involvement of the private sector.
“We have to ask the question, are our farmers prepared? We have to improve farm production rates so that they may be able to compete with other players that will soon saturate the market. Pour funds into mechanization and provide our farmers with fertilizers. Bringing down the cost of production will not only increase their income, but also raise their competitiveness,” Pangilinan said.
“Priming the private sector is also important so that we may be able to level the playing field in order for rice prices to not fall and be in the control of only a few. Rice is the staple food of more than 100 million of our people. Changes in rice prices determine whether or not a family will go hungry,” he said.
“If the functions of the NFA will be performed responsibly and its officials remain prudent, the agency can be a catalyst for achieving its mandate of food security,” he added.