WHAT SHOULD HAVE been a fair playing field for all possible suppliers under the rice program of former Agriculture Undersecretary Leo Sebastian have miraculously evolved into an opaque and secrecy-filled procurement process with only select possible suppliers of seeds, inputs like fertilizers and biofertilizers, farm machineries and other farm implements being invited to participate.
This was voiced out by former DA Secretary Leonardo Q. Montemayor as he asked the DA to explain why participation in its procurement bidding process for fertilizers, seeds, and farm inputs appears to be limited — raising concerns that qualified suppliers may already be excluded before bidding even begins, said Situation Report (an online portal of the DZRH).
Montemayor, who heads the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), aired the concern in an interview on DZRH News program Special on Saturday on April 25, saying the pattern warrants serious scrutiny.
“Ang gusto sana namin maliwanagan: mayroon bang nangyayari sa loob po ng procurement system ng DA na sa umpisa’t umpisa pa ay inetsapwera na po ‘yung ibang pwede naman pong qualified bidders?” Montemayor said.
“Mukhang limited ‘yung mga nakakapag-participate dito sa bidding process,” he said, asking whether something within DA’s procurement system is already disqualifying otherwise eligible bidders at the outset.
Disproportionate share of contracts
Beyond limited participation, he also flagged the concentration of winning contracts, where some suppliers are cornering disproportionately large shares of supply contracts — particularly in hybrid rice seeds and fertilizers — raising significant questions about the integrity of the system.
“‘Yung mismo reported na some winning suppliers, napakalaki po ang nako-corner nila sa mga ibini-bid po na supply, halimbawa ng hybrid rice seeds o ‘di kaya ng fertilizer,” he stressed.
Montemayor stressed that the stakes are direct and concrete for farmers. When government-supplied seeds or fertilizers are of poor quality — a risk he said increases when procurement is compromised — farmers suffer crop losses and financial setbacks, while public funds are also wasted.
“A lot of questions have to be answered and clarified para masiguro naman natin na fairly clean ang sistema ng procurement sa loob ng Department of Agriculture, at nakakapagbigay sila ng tamang serbisyo sa ating mga magsasaka,” Montemayor stressed.
He mentioned writing to current DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. about these concerns two months ago, when the latter responded by committing a nationwide on-the-ground survey of all DA projects.
Todate, he said he had received no update on the survey’s status, nor any clarity on what role farmers’ organizations would be asked to play in the process.
Formal mechanism in place
Montemayor noted that a formal mechanism already exists to give farmers a voice in DA procurement and project monitoring — the National Agricultural and Fishery Council system, which operates from the municipal up to the national level.
But in practice, the system is largely ineffective because farmers’ representatives lack even basic resources such as transportation and food allowances to conduct monitoring work on the ground.
He called on DA to strengthen this oversight structure, ensure that farmers’ councils have the operational resources to function, and provide them with project lists — including farm-to-market roads and irrigation systems — so that organized farmers can serve as an additional layer of accountability within the department’s procurement and implementation processes.
Broken govt. tractors
Montemayor is raising alarm over the quality inferior quality of farm machineries being distributed to Filipino farmers with DA’s decision to relax supplier pre-qualification standards six to seven years ago that has left farmer coops with defective tractors and no reliable after-sales support.
He pointed to PhilMech or the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization — the DA’s agricultural mechanization agency — with its ₱5-billion annual budget in procuring various farm machinery, including heavy tractors.
He said that before the standards were changed, only established suppliers with proven track records, service centers, spare parts availability, and on-call technicians were pre-qualified to bid — a system he described as producing reliable equipment and dependable service for farmers.
“Noon ang pre-qualified na pwedeng mag-bid at mag-supply ng heavy tractors ay ‘yung established at kilala na ng mga machinery suppliers at tsaka mayroon na po silang track record,” and these suppliers had sales centers, spare parts, and technicians readily available when equipment broke down, he explained.
But that changed when the pre-qualification requirements were eased, allowing newer suppliers with unproven after-sales service capability and unproven spare parts distribution systems to participate in and win government bids.
Farmers are now feeling the consequences. “Marami pong reklamo na madaling masira ‘yung equipment,” and when they or their cooperatives call for a technician, response is slow — if at all — and spare parts are not readily available.
What should have been a well-designed program for farmers has been undermined by poor procurement decisions. “Ang ganda na sana ng programa, pero ang laki po ng aberya gawa po sa ganitong klaseng pamamalakad,” Montemayor said.
Montemayor called the situation a double loss — for farmers who are left with idle, broken equipment during critical planting and harvest periods, and for the government whose limited public funds are being spent on machinery that fails to deliver its intended purpose.
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