A working PPP

In 1969, a joint venture agreement was entered into between the Bureau of Corrections and Tagum Development Corp. (Tadeco) which converted the 5,308-hectare Davao Penal Colony reservation in Panabo, Davao del Norte into a banana plantation.

The deal was renewed 10 years later, and then for another 25 years in 2003. The last lease extension guaranteed BuCor an annual production and profit share of P26.54 million, plus mandatory increase of 10 percent every five years. The agreement also gave BuCor windfall from Tadeco’s banana exports.

Over the years, the JVA had gone through scrutiny and review, in fact by 14 heads of the Department of Justice. In 2012, the House of Representatives looked into the JVA and found it was beneficial to the government and the community.

Supporters of the JVA insist that BuCor and the inmates actually gained much, much more. After all, it was conceived as a means to rehabilitate the inmates of the Davao Prison and Penal Farm.

In 2013 for instance, about 800 inmates received expert training and an average stipend of P7,664 per month each.

Tadeco also rehired many inmates who had been released. Inmate-worker participants in the JVA who have graduated from the Inmate Farm Workers Training and Exposure Program (IFTEP) had been trained in sophisticated Cavendish banana farming technology.

Documents furnished this writer also showed in 2016 alone, Tadeco spent P142.7 million to defray the cost of inmates’ farm training support, stipend and training subsidy.

Meanwhile, the government received P295 million in tax revenues and fees from the JVA.

It is said that since 1969 when the JVA started, the work program has helped rehabilitate more than 15,000 inmates, many now employed by banana plantations surrounding the penal colony.

The banana operations covered by the JVA also created 30,000 jobs directly and indirectly, and secured the future of at least 181,000 Filipinos.

Unfortunately, politics has gotten in the way.

Last March, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, who everybody knows is not in good terms with Tadeco owner and Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr., claims that the deal between Tadeco and BuCor is grossly disadvantageous to government and has urged the DOJ to void the contract.

Alvarez insists that the agreement is based on a low lease rate of around P5,000 per hectare per year. Critics say that the current lease rate in the area is P25,000 per hectare per year. He added the 25-year deal is contrary to industry practice of only five-10 years.

The Office of the Solicitor General in an opinion said the JVA is void as it goes against the Constitution and the Public Land Act, which allow private corporations to lease lands of the public domain for a period not exceeding 50 years and an area not exceeding 1,000 hectares.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre meanwhile approved a DOJ committee finding that the JVA is null and void for the same reason cited by the OSG.

Aguirre said he would recommend to the President to issue a presidential proclamation to rescind the agreement and make the reservation area alienable and disposable land that can be sold off or leased to interested parties.

The critics, including Alvarez, the DOJ and OSG, all assume the JVA is a lease arrangement. But it is not.

Not being a lease agreement, it is not subject to the limitations provided for under the Constitution and the Public Land Act. Agreements under the public-private partnership (PPP) program in fact require concessions of 25 years, renewable once for another 25 years.

And if it were a lease arrangement, the rents would go to the National Treasury and not to BuCor, which again is not the case here, negating the argument that it is lease.

Here is an effective PPP that has lasted for 48 years and has benefitted Mindanao to a large extent and has given a new lease on life to ex-convicts who have become viable members of society. The President should tell his men to let this agreement be.

Resiliency the Japanese way

(Conclusion)

Hideaki Suzuki, director for farm products marketing division of the Fukushima Prefecture Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Department, said that more than 10 million sacks of rice are inspected per year, with foreign government officials even observing the inspection process. About 1.6 billion yen has been spent so far for rice inspection.

Monitoring results for the prefecture from April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017 for fruit and vegetables, livestock and cultivated mushrooms revealed that none exceeded the standards while 0.25 percent of wild mushrooms and 0.04 percent of aquatic products tested exceeded the allowable radioactive materials standards. These were not allowed to be sold. As for rice, the test from August 2016 to April 2017 showed that 100 percent was safe.

Decontamination of farmland continues through reverse ploughing (switching topsoil and subsoil) and topsoil removal. They explained that since the radioactive cesium is absorbed by clay materials and not by crops within five centimeters of the topsoil, removal of the top later decontaminates the farmlands. Another way is by increasing the amount of potassium in the soil, thereby reducing the absorption of radioactive cesium.

In order to ensure consumer safety and peace of mind, he said that they start by removing radioactive substances from the farmland, and then preventing the transfer of radioactive substances to the produce through absorption reduction and control measures, followed by checking food safety through pre-shipment monitoring. It is only after all these that the products are distributed to the market.

Fukushima rice was exported to the United Kingdom last year, Suzuki added.

Between April and June 2011 immediately after the disaster, the percentage of marine fishery products in Fukushima Prefecture that exceeded the 100 Bq/kg limit was 57.1 percent and has fallen to zero percent since April 2015. Despite this, it said fishery cooperatives give due attention to safety and security by conducting voluntary inspections.

Road to recovery

But slowly and steadily, Fukushima is recovering. From a level of 57.179 million inbound tourists in 2010, this dropped to 35,211 in 2011, but is already up to 50,313 in 2015 of 88 percent of pre-disaster levels.

Fukushima is also building new industries, specifically renewable energy. From 10.7 percent radio of renewable energy, it is now up to 25 percent and they hope that by 2040, 100 percent of the energy demand from the prefecture will be supplied by renewable energy.

The prefecture is also being developed as a hub for medical devices and affiliated instruments.

It is also their goal to convert Fukushima into a land of robot industrial revolution, promoting robotics for decommissioning and disaster prevention measures. They explained that when radiation levels are too high for humans to approach the reactors, one solution is robotics.

Meanwhile, Fukushima was chosen as a venue to host a part of baseball and softball matches at the 2020 Games, which will be an invaluable opportunity for the prefecture to draw attention from the world.

For 2017, the Fukushima Prefecture has set aside a ¥1.72 trillion budget, of which ¥74.9 billion will be for rebuilding livelihoods, ¥242.7 billion for environmental restoration, ¥54 billion for primary industry revival, ¥116.6 billion for revitalization of SMEs, ¥34.8 billion for new industry creation, among others.

It took six years and lots of money to revive areas directly and indirectly affected by the Great Earthquake and the ensuing tsunami and nuclear accident. Skeptics remain within and outside Japan as to food and air quality especially within the Fukushima Prefecture. Import restrictions continue for some countries. But for the people of Fukushima Prefecture, life goes on and they are more than willing to teach the world, especially those who would be victims of similar disaster, how to bounce back and attain economic and social recovery.

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