The obsession to lie about the country’s growth projections– including controlling inflation at all cost– would be the biggest mistake of this administration.
Regardless if the business community recommends removing all import barriers to be purely temporary, this won’t happen at all, as businessmen have a way of pushing their long-term (interest) gain over those of the farmers and fisherfolk.
Administrative Order 20, which was recommended by the National Economic and Development Authority to artificially control the upward push of food inflation, is anti-farmer and anti-fishermen since removing all import restrictions would mean opening the floodgates for all farm products in the country, to the detriment of local production.
This AO, albeit temporary as pushed by the business community (particularly the Chinese importers), is tantamount to kissing the farming sector goodbye forever.
It is a very desperate call that is intended only to boost this administration’s fixation of achieving soon, its dream of attaining an upper middle income status for the Philippines, purely for building a 'rich' image for a country that continues to grapple with poverty, unemployment and a yawning underemployment and soaring food inflation owing to mismanagement of the agriculture sector.
As president Cecilio Pedro– founder of Lamoiyan which produces Happee toothpaste and more– of the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the measures werre crucial to bringing down food prices and curbing inflation, but he stressed that it should only be temporary. (Highly unlikely because of greed of most importers and businesses for quick profits).
He urged the administration to prioritize long-term reforms and modernization programs to strengthen the agriculture sector and improve the lives of local fishermen and farmers. (Better said than done. Aanhin pa ang damo kung patay na kabayo).
He said Marcos’ order AO 20 dated April 18) seeks to eliminate non-tariff barriers and expedite administrative procedures for agricultural imports to address bottlenecks that contribute to higher import costs and limited supply of farm goods, ultimately leading to price spikes for agricultural commodities. In short, the order wants speedy processing of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances for sugar and fishery product importation as to fast track the processing of agricultural imports.
It also establishes a surveillance team to monitor importation and distribution, prevent illegal activities and ensure the AO’s effective implementation.
Former Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor said only importers would benefit from the AO (not consumers, nor farmers/fishers).
He told the Star that it would weaken the agricultural sector, esp. fisheries and sugar. Worse, it did not undergo consultation, as far as he knows. This (AO) contradicts the Fisheries Code (RA 8550) and Sugarcane Industry Development ACt (RA 10659) and an AO can’t overrule two existing laws (RAs). The AO, he said, effectively removed the oversight functions of both the Sugar Regulatory Authority and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
Besides, he said, there is no guarantee that unlimited importation (from a removal of import restrictions) would necessarily reduce food prices, as shown in rice, where lower tariffs on Indian and Pakistani rice did not benefit the consumers (from low prices).
It will just make importers pay less tariff and taxes they pay for such an easy time importing, while discouraging local producers.
Montemayor said that given the low budget of DA for 2025, this means the government is not serious about strengthening local production but more for increasing imports.
Raul Montemayor, national manager of the Federation of Free Farmers, said lower tariffs had already been extended until the end of December “but these have not been able to reduce retail prices. There is no assurance that reducing non-tariff measures will result in lower consumer prices. And it might only encourage smuggling, undervaluation and misdeclaration of imports.”
“And why focus on making it easier to import. Why don’t they address the barriers to domestic trade that make it expensive and difficult to bring local products from the farms to the consumers?” he added.
My take
I completely agree with the points raised by the two Montemayors. The economic managers are really out of touch with reality– that farmers and fishermen are already dying from the smuggling of food importations and that this government is only responsive to the interest of the wealthy and influential businessmen. I wonder why!
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