The Inner Truth

Wanting Reforms At The DA

MY FAVORITE COLUMNIST, Cielito Habito, does it again. He wrote about the “dysfunctional” agriculture sector, zeroing in on the bureaucracy that to me is not just over bloated but also directionless, a fact I have been harping on for weeks or months now.

This is evidenced by the almost daily pronouncements or announcements of the top leader, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. about his plans, programs and policies that almost always border on the need to import this or that item to ensure that adequate supplies are available to consumers. 

I seldom read or hear of real programs that would directly benefit the farmers and fishermen other than the financial support or ayuda that are given to them in times of natural calamities like last year’s drought and the successive storms in the fourth quarter of 2024. Plans like cold storage facilities and fancy-sounding names are being announced but I don’t know to what extent they are being implemented.

Almost daily, I read in newspapers about the projects of the bureaus and agencies under or attached to the DA who move on their own, but I credit such prominence to the diligence of the reporters covering the DA beat.

SAME AS 14 YEARS AGO

In his column, Habito (who used to head the NEDA) maintained that the dismal failure in agriculture “is not due  to lack of technological knowhow, natural endowments or human power,” which we have plenty of but in the governance and management of the sector.

He cited the views raised 14 years ago by the late Dr. Eliseo Ponce, who headed for five years the Bureau of Agricultural Research, Habito enumerated the DA’s shortcomings as: (1) overcentralization; (2) unstable and politicized budget; (3) unclear communication lines; (4) fragmentation and weak coordination; (5) lack of clear organizational framework; (6) weak technical and managerial capacity; (7) authority without accountability, and (8) graft and corruption and massive waste of public resources. 

Habito said Ponce pushed for reforms like a) function-oriented, rather than commodity-oriented, budgeting (with rice having over half of the budget even if its contribution to agricultural GDP is less than ⅕  and b) eliminating conflict of interest.

DEFINING CORE FUNCTIONS

Ponce, he said,  argued that the DA budget would be better defined according to its core functions, namely: (1) policy, planning, monitoring, and evaluation; (2) standards-setting, regulation, inspection, and quarantine; (3) research and development; (4) information, communication, and supervision of (devolved) extension, and (5) international relations.

“Efforts toward improving commodities should be done through regular line bureaus like the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), etc., and not through specialized ad hoc commodity programs whose leaders had in the past been endowed with authority and command over substantial resources, without the corresponding accountability,” Habito cited Ponce.

With devolution of functions, LGUs must do the “rowing” while DA must be “steering,” and that “a distinct and significant part of the DA budget (must) be devoted to supporting LGUs, especially on capacity-building. Only through this may the DA truly work through the LGUs, and thereby be more responsive to the needs of its clients on the ground,” Ponce pointed out.

On the conflict of interest, Habito wrote that regulatory functions have traditionally been spread across various DA bureaus and attached agencies, such as the BPI, BAI, BFAR, Philippine Coconut Authority, Sugar Regulatory Administration, National Meat Inspection Service, and Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority. 

CONSOLIDATING FUNCTIONS

Ponce recommended consolidating all DA regulatory functions into one apex regulatory body, and limiting the bureaus to their developmental functions. But his proposal was understandably opposed by the concerned agencies. 

“The government can halt this charade and say enough is enough as the interest of the people must take precedence over self-preservation and welfare of a few.”

A bill for an Agriculture Bureaucracy Restructuring Act was filed to accompany the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997 (Republic Act 8435) but never saw the light of day. 

Former president Joseph Estrada, in EO No. 338, reorganized the DA before stepping down in 2001 but the DA under Arroyo did not implement the EO in the process, stymying such reforms.

Instead of a bureaucratic reform, the DA pursued only piecemeal changes ending up with a top-heavy organization of 13 USecs and 14 Asecs. It is top heavy, disorganized and directionless, for me.

Habito prescribed an Education Commission or EdCom and the formation of a high-level AgriCom to fix a dysfunctional DA that is holding back the sector and the entire country.