Continuity or Change?U N P A C K I N G D U T E R T E ’ S A G E N D A F O R T H E

C O U N T R Y S I D E

BY

MARY ANN MANAHAN

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION

Overview

Dismal state of Philippine agriculture & agrarian sector

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION

Low contribution

to GDP, declining

employment, high poverty

incidence low productivity,

ageing farmers

Rural poverty as

multi-dimensional

problem: access to & control of

land & productive resources

Land speculation,

land use conversion

Extreme weather events & climate change as new normal

Migration

Lack of industries to absorb

excess rural labor

Duterte’s Populism and Promises

• Break from the past: prioritize the rural sector by focusing on smallholder agriculture, provide free irrigation to farmers, address long-standing issues of agrarian & land reform

• First 100 days: food security, release of the Php 100 billion worth of accumulated coco levy assets to coconut farmers

• Increase monthly rural income from Php 4,500 to Php 6,000

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION

His Cabinet’s Promises/Thrusts

“No farmers will be displaced from their lands”

Corporative scheme/AVA review

Two-year moratorium on land use conversion

Condonation of interests on amortization

Free land distribution (with just compensation)

CARP inventory/validation

Reversal of anti-farmer decisions

Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill

House cleaning in the DA

Affordable food for the people

Increase agricultural productivity

“100 percent rice self-sufficiency by 2018”

Institutional consolidation

Stop smuggling of rice & other agricultural products

Free irrigation services to small farmers

A Year After

• With eclectic cabinet members, agenda and action for the countryside are schizophrenic and internally contradictory:

– Competing frameworks

– Important agri policies: rice self-sufficiency, land use conversion, irrigation services, genuine agrarian reform

– Farmers’ concerns

1. Nagtutunggaling Balangkas/Competing Frameworks

Inclusive growth: Link small farmers to market & value chains

Role of agribusiness, private sector participation

Protection and support of small farmers, fishers, IPs

Small farms development

Urban viz. Rural Development

• Recognizes role and comparative advantages of cities as engines of economic growth and poverty reduction, and infrastructure development to provide efficient connective networks of sustainable urban and rural communities.

• Three component strategies: – Build efficiencies and economies of scale to

decongest NCR; direct growth to key regional centers

– Spur networks of settlements (urban-rural linkages) to address spatial and socioeconomic inequalities by linking lagging regions with leading ones

– Vulnerability reduction as integral part of development

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION

Focus on Special

Economic Zones

• President Duterte appointed Charito B. Plaza as the new Director General of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) in September 2016 (PEZA, 2016)

• New economic zones in every province and city in accordance to President Duterte’s previous pronouncements during his campaign (federalism?) to encourage investment and job creation in the country particularly in underdeveloped regions

• “We have to make every land productive and utilized so every province and every city have different potentials.” (Romero, 2017)

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION

(Modified) Central place and growth pole thinking

Lack of infrastructure, especially infra that facilitate inter-regional flow of trade, goods, services and people

(“Golden Age of Infrastructure)

Connectivity: Central role of cities and creation of networks of settlements

Role of state/public authorities for enabling a conducive environment for NSS; increased local and foreign investments for growth centers and improved market access via Cha-Cha

Key assumptions largely unchallenged

in PDP 2017-2022

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION

2. Rice self-sufficiency goal set back to 2020

• Revive Marcos’ Masagana 99 and BiyayanDagat

• Decentralized public spending and subsidized program: Sec Pinol’s ‘Corporate farming system’ with LGUs providing seeds and fertilizers, buying up rice, opening up bigasang masa for CCT beneficiaries (pilot: QC, Kidapawan, Quirino)

• Let the free market work: Lifting of quantitative restrictions in rice

• Budget reduction and lack of funds

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION

3. Free Irrigation Services

• Php 2 billion budget to cover the maintenance expenses of irrigation facilities that the National Irrigation Administration charges from farmers in 2017 (only half of what Sec. Pinol requested)

• Passage of HB 5670 or the Free Irrigation Act on May 2017

• Problem with unrepaired irrigation facilities in Bustos and Pandi, Bulacan, loss of income

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION

4. Land Use Conversion

• President Duterte expressed support for Ka Paeng’s proposal at 35th

PARC meeting • DAR’s data: 142 applications for conversion of CARP lands to non-

agricultural uses, with 101 approved applications covering 2,496 hectares and 41 denied applications representing 1,397 hectares (July 2010-May 2016)

• Sec. Pinol issued a memorandum dated August 17, 2016 ordering all DA offices and field units, bureaus and attached agencies to cancel or deny any application for conversion (livestock & agribusiness)

• NEDA’s Ernesto Pernia and VP Leni Robredo rejected the proposal: “anti-poor”, will prevent the government to realize its housing backlog of 5.5. million houses

• EO is still being deliberated, now on 6th draft

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION

5. Genuine agrarian reform

• Open door policy & policy issuances to remove the anti-farmer provisions previously issued and new rules to expedite agrarian reform implementation, new policy on AVAs

• Distribution of 500 hectares of lands in Hacienda Luisita, cancellation of two corporative schemes in Mindanao, and distribution of banana plantation lands to Lapanday farmworkers, whom President Duterte personally met at Mendiola during their protest, GARB in PDP

• But Charter change is a priority in the PDP 2017-2022: removal of foreign ownership restrictions to land in the Constitution; unrestricted land market

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION

2017 Target: 48,000 hectares

• As of Jan 2016, there are 621,085 hectares that remain to be distributed, 66% via compulsory acquisition

• Possible 6 million lands due to exemption, circumvention

• Petitions for Notice of Coverage ( 100,000 hectares)

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION

6. Farmers concerns

• Unkept promises: coconut levy• Unchanged situation

– Seguridad sa lupa, pabahay, embankment sa Yolanda corridor

– Patuloy na harassments, human rights violations, extra judicial killings, at criminalization

– Land grabbing, SEZs

• Selective agrarian reform implementation

• Hacienda Luisita, Cojuangco lands

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION

Conclusion• Sasapat ba ang mga polisiya at aksyon upang

sagutin ang matagal ng mga problema sakanayunan?

• May pagbabago, ngunit para lamang sa iilan at alyado ng Pangulo

• Kung ang isang taon ay salamin ng kung ano ang paparating para sa kanayunan sa susunod na 5 taon, mukhang malalaking negosyo at mayayaman ang makikinabang at ang small farms development ay mananatiling drawing lamang.

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION

Maramingsalamatposa inyongpakikinig!

A YEAR OF DUTERTISMOUNPACKING ITS POLICIES, VISION, AND DIRECTION