Militants: Fertilizer subsidy for Bicol farmers, too little, too late!

MANILA, Philippines — The fertilizer subsidy that the local Department of Agriculture (DA) released for Bikolano farmers came too little and too late and will only benefit big landowners , according to the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Bikol (Bayan-Bikol) and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-Bikol (KMP-Bikol). For every 50 sacks of palay that the farmers will sell to the National Food Authority (NFA) at P17 per kilo, farmers will be given a P1,000 fertilizer subsidy. According to Felix Paz, chairman of KMP-Bicol, “the ones who will mainly benefit from this so-called subsidy are owners of big landowners in Bicol because they monopolize most of agricultural lands in Bicol. The total land area of Bicol is 1,763,249 hectares and 1,222,060 hectares of this is considered as alienable and disposable. A KMP-Bikol study showed that there are at least 1,500,000 farmers and 1,856 big landowners in the region. Farmer’s own an average of 2.24 hectares while big landowners own an average of 60.24 hectares. More than a million farmers then do not have land to till," “Land monopoly, lack of knowledge and technology and the absence of an effective agricultural program of the government are the obstacles to the increased productivity and comprehensive development of the agricultural sector in the region. This is also the cause of the centuries old poverty of peasants in Bicol. No amount of dole outs or palliatives can solve this. Besides it is further aggravated by the Arroyo regime’s policy of rice importation, thereby pushing us to further poverty," Paz said. Tessa Lopez, public information officer of Bayan -Bikol said: “More likely than not that the funds for this project as well as the P7B supposed farmer’s fund will just go the way of the P728M fertilizer fund scam especially now that the preparations for the 2010 national elections are quite early and Sec. Yap is vying for a senatorial post. Our call remains the same; the VAT should be scrapped," “We would be watching this so-called new fertilizer subsidy and the P7B farmer’s fund every step of the way and we would not think twice of exposing its irregularities to the Filipino people like what we did with the fertilizer fund scam," Lopez said. - GMANews.TV