Farmers’ group endorses Grace

Farmers’ group Samahan ng Industriyang Agrikultura ( SINAG) has endorsed the presidential bid of Sen. Grace Poe.

In a statement yesterday, SINAG chairman Rosendo So said the group chose to support Poe because of her clean record and oneness with the agricultural sector.

Although Poe is a neophyte senator, SINAG believes she would help farmers in their struggles because she understands the problems besetting the agriculture sector.

SINAG said Poe is the only presidential candidate who initiated the bill seeking to make smuggling of agricultural commodities as economic sabotage. Other candidates may be seasoned politicians who held high positions in government, “but they never helped the industry combat smuggling.”

“That other candidate, he only wants to look good for the cameras, that he was there during the raid of warehouses suspected of having smuggled rice and other agricultural commodities,” SINAG said.

SINAG earlier bared that nearly P200 billion worth of agricultural goods were smuggled into the country since 2010, the year President Aquino started office.

A market value of P200 billion translates to P60 billion to P80 billion in lost revenues for the government since agricultural commodities are supposed to be protected and levied a higher tariff of 30 percent to 40 percent.

“Also, in the aftermath of Typhoon Lando last year, Poe urged the government to increase by tenfold, or to P16 billion, the budget of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) in a transparent and accountable system to accomplish its mandate of providing insurance to farmers against losses arising from natural calamities,” So said.

But PCIC’s budget for 2016 is a measly P1.6 billion. It covers just over half a million farmers, representing just over five percent of the 11 million Filipinos employed in the agriculture sector, SINAG said.

Poe also joined the clamor to ask government to waive irrigation fees imposed on rice farmers and provide subsidies for seeds and farm inputs to help rice farmers replant immediately after the series of typhoons that hit the country late last year, the group added.

If elected president, Poe said she would increase the annual budget for the agriculture sector to at least 10 percent of the national budget.