Agree deportment

Call it a trivial pursuit but arriving on time for the scheduled press conference would be the most welcome change indeed when incoming President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) officially assumes his job at Malacanang Palace. Outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte has been known to be always late on his own schedules, more so if it involves his media meetings and press conference.

Of course, Palace protocol staff made sure President Duterte promptly arrived on time in his meetings with foreign dignitaries or attending international events here and abroad. The news desk was alerted ahead that PBBM called a 5 p.m. press conference last Monday at his erstwhile campaign headquarters turned into temporary office of the President-elect. At the exact set time, PBBM was seated already at the table for his opening statements.

An unsolicited media advice though for PBBM. Please hold your press conference earlier than the 5 p.m. deadline imposed in most media entities. Even pressed for deadlines, submitting news stories with least haste but with great care is a daily struggle in any presidential coverage.

Actually, the press conference of PBBM was set as an event after the meeting with his Socio-Economic Cabinet cluster composed of Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno; National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan; Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma; Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman; Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Amado Pascual; and, Department of Social Welfare (DSWD) Secretary Erwin Tulfo. Not a member but included in this Cluster is Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Felipe Medalla to represent the monetary policymaking body.

At his press conference, PBBM announced he would hold temporarily in concurrent capacity as Secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA). “As to agriculture, I think the problem is severe enough that I have decided to take on the portfolio of Agriculture Secretary at least for now,” PBBM declared.

This is nothing new. The most recent precedent was then president Joseph Estrada who initially served as his own Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government. The former actor-turned politician was to trying to project his top priority on peace and order by immediately curbing criminalities during the first few months of his administration subsequently shortened by EDSA-3 power grab.

Actually, the Agriculture Secretary is a member of the Cabinet economic cluster. It was only in August, 2019 when the Duterte Cabinet economic cluster included anew the Agriculture Secretary after the President appointed William Dar to head the Department. Now 69 years old, Dar took over from erstwhile Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol who had openly conflicted with the Duterte Cabinet economic cluster over policy issues on agriculture, especially on rice farming sector.

In his press conference, PBBM revealed his directives to his Cabinet economic team to prepare the necessary Executive issuances needed such as relief measures that could immediately be implemented to mitigate the impact of the rising prices of food, oil products and of other basic goods. Among other measures, he specifically mentioned the need to speed up the digitalization to implement more efficient distribution and payment “ayuda,” or the government subsidy programs, especially to the most vulnerable sectors of the Filipino population.

“We talked about national listing of indigents to make sure those who get the ayuda were the truly ones needing it badly,” he pointed out.

The DSWD handles the so-called “4 Ps” or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program-- the centerpiece cash subsidy program of the government supposedly distributed to the poorest of the poor families all over the country. Likewise, the DSWD also handles the “ayuda for the pandemic-affected sectors such as the public transport workers, farmers and fisherfolks.

Thus, PBBM instructed the NEDA and BSP to ramp up the issuance of the National ID cards to 92 million Filipinos ages five years old and above by the end of 2022. The Philippine Statistics Authority under the NEDA and the BSP handle, respectively, the electronic form and the printing of the National ID card. Currently, about 14.3 million National ID cards were printed and 12.3 million were already delivered nationwide.

Aside from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, PBBM noted with concern other “external factors” like the Ukraine-Russia war going on for the past four months exacerbate the rising prices on food and refined oil products in the Philippines as well as elsewhere in the world. Worse, PBBM lamented, “leakages” have been draining the limited government resources from taxes and other sources of State revenues. “Leakages” simply means the public funds lost either to corruption, red tape, and inefficiencies in various agencies handling the State subsidy programs.

Obviously, PBBM was couching his words not to hurt the feelings of outgoing President Duterte, the father of his Vice President-elect Sara Duterte.

Overall, there was mixed reception to PBBM serving as Agriculture Secretary at the same time when he takes his oath of office at the end of this month. He is merely consistent with his campaign promises during the May 9 presidential elections to push forward the country’s agriculture.

One of the PBBM campaign promises is to bring down the price of rice to P20 per kilo. However, even his Cabinet socio-economic managers were one in the view it is a very tall order given the realities on the ground. In the meantime, he could take a deeper look at the Senate Committee on Agriculture report detailing the rampant smuggling of rice, vegetables, and other agricultural crops that worsened the plight of Filipino farmers.

PBBM already bared his plans to reorganize the Agriculture Department “in such a way that will make it ready for the years to come.” Through his agree deportment, the President-elect concurs these are the “must do” priorities for him as incoming Agriculture Secretary.