Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said the veto of provisions in the 2022 budget related to agriculture represents the Duterte administration’s latest assault on the country’s farmers and fishers.
“Ang dapat bawasan ay yung mga klarong wala o maliit ang kontribusyon sa Covid recovery tulad ng confidential at intel budget. Kukunan mo pa ng budget ang para sa mga magsasaka at mangingisda? Dapat mas maraming pagkakataong makabangon ang sektor ng pagkain. (What needs to be cut are programs with little or no contribution to COVID recovery. Why do we need to cut the budgt for fishers and farmers? There should many options for the food sector to recover),” he said.
In his veto message, Duterte thumbed down the budget provision including farmers and fisherfolk organizations or associations on the authorized credit facilities that will manage the Agro-IndustryModernization Credit Financing Program under the Republic Act 8435 or Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization law.
The President said expanding such authority was not needed as there are already banks, cooperatives, and financial institutions to handle credit.
“We studied this carefully in Congress and we defended it before the plenary. This means that every provision is what it thinks is best for all sectors in the country,” Pangilinan said.
He said one of the provisions is to allow farmers to be involved in credit management and to widen farmers’ understanding of how to grow their earnings. “The President should believe in our farmers,” Pangilinan said.
Pangilinan meanwhile said Maria Ressa, the first Filipino to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, will attend Wednesday’s Senate Committee of the Whole hearing on disinformation
The hearing is the result of Proposed Senate Resolution 953 directing the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes to conduct a review, in aid of legislation, of the country’s existing criminal laws to consider the rise of social media platforms and the rapid advancement of technology.
Ressa was invited to the two previous hearings in December but was in Oslo at the time to receive her award. She is expected to discuss the disinformation infrastructure at the hearing.
Other confirmed attendees include representatives of online sellers and advertisers Shopee (Jem Hans-Segovia) and Lazada (Neil Trinidad) to answer questions on allowing fake news to be advertised on their social media assets;
Google (Yves Gonzales and Jean-Jacques Sahel) and Facebook, now known as Meta (Roy Tan and Robert Abrams) were also invite, along with other private firms and law experts.