Agricultural Sector Not Performing As It Should Be Because There's No One Advocating For Them - AAMBIS-OWA #19

As I stated in my prior 2 posts on the subject, our country's agriculture is a mix of small, medium and large farms with the majority of them small lots averaging about 2 hectares.

Despite that, agriculture is a main occupation of about a third of our workers and contribute about 1/5th of our Gross Domestic Product.

Crop cultivation is the main enterprise with the rest being poultry, services, and swine farming.

Despite its desire to implement reforms to increase productivity, efficiency, competitiveness, market adaptability, and sustainability, the agricultural sector's reforms have been hampered by inadequate resources, limited implementing capabilities of both national and local government units and weak coordination among the differing implementing agencies.

This has resulted in a significant decrease in overall productivity, high production costs and negligible government support. Add past and current environmental disasters such as the El Niño and La Niña phenomena that have hit us and the agricultural sector is in a crisis.
A crisis that has affected the crop sub-sector wherein farmers saw a 1.42% decrease in total production last year. While overall gate prices went up by about 1.81% hidden by that is the fact that coconut prices went down by 21.03%, coffee by 10.17% and Onions by 30.62%.

And even with prices of fertilizer down (for now) it has been offset by increases in the price of fuel which will, in turn, eventually increase the price of fertilizers in the future. This will be true when the price of oil in the global market hits $100 per barrel again and there is no reason why it won't.
These two elements are two of the biggest cost of production facing our country's farmers.

And despite our government's promises nothing seems to be done or if it is it only benefits those that have political connections or those that have big farms that don't really need government assistance. Often it's a case of too-little-too-late.

That's why it's imperative that our country's farmers are given representation so that they have advocates in congress willing and able to fight for what they need and deserve.


AAMBIS-OWA, number #19 in the party-list in the May 10th national elections are the farmer's advocates.

AAMBIS-OWA is a non-profit national organization of small marginalized farmers that started as a half-hour Sunday radio program in Iloilo that soon spread beyond the boundaries of Region IV.

As a farmer's organization, AAMBIS-OWA understands the basic problems plaguing our farmers from the farmer's perspective. It is their purpose to promote and support agendas that help uplift the economic welfare and rights of marginalized farmers and their families around the country.

Their legislative agenda is for the marginalized farmers and is centered on the basic and prevalent problems of its members.

Problem 1: Production is stagnant or declining

• Streamlining or overhauling of government and public institutions within the agricultural sector

• Linkages and partnerships to foster agricultural innovation

• Advocacy on agricultural competitiveness and modernization

• Infrastructure development, especially farm irrigation and farm-to-market roads.

Problem 2: Farmers continue to live below poverty level

• Technology transfer through learning centers to increase production output and minimize production costs.

• Training for farmers and their families on modern farming technologies and alternative income sources

• Research and development to improve cultivation, intercropping, production, processing, marketing, registration, and export

• Government monitoring on farming supply costs

• Quality control standards on all stages of the industry to gain better trading terms

Problem 3: Low farm gate prices

• Organization and support of cooperatives and farmers'groups.

• Integrated processing centrals owned by farmers or farmers' groups.

• Government monitoring on trading and pricing

Problem 4: Farmers and their families are without economic and social security

• Magna-carta for the socio-economic, health, and educational benefits of marginalized farmers and their dependents

• Crop insurance and financing

• Training and education for dependents, whether through scholarships or seminars, on entrepreneurial alternatives

AAMBIS-OWA seeks party-list representation in the House of Representatives to fight for a comprehensive and sustainable legislative agenda for marginalized farmers. Through a common voice, AAMBIS wishes to bring attention and to find rightful solutions to the grassroots of the agricultural industry.

It's not about asking for complicated answers to the basic problems of marginalized farmers. It's about asking for simple and essential solutions as seen from the eyes of the poorest farmers in the country.

Our farmers toil the soil in order for us to eat and for our country to grow and develop. Why aren't we doing more to help them?

Help our farmers so they can help themselves and as a result help ourselves. Their future is our future as well.

Give our farmers the representation and zealous advocacy that they deserve.

In the upcoming May 10th national elections give our farmers AAMBIS-OWA #19.

VOTE AAMBIS-OWA #19 ON MAY 10TH!

It Comes Down The Wire For The Presidentiables

A little over two more days to go before we get to elect our new government. Well I say new government but really it's the same type of government but simply under new management.

So who will you vote for president? That all important position - the head of all corrupt politicians everywhere. But I digress . . .

Villar? The billionaire businessman who supposedly grew up poor and became rich out of pure hard work and diligence. A true rags to riches story.

Opponents argue he was really never that poor and that they were actually middle class.

They also say that he will ruin our country economically because he's only here to make money.

Whatever . . . he can't do any worse than Arroyo. Let's face it there is really nothing left to get, her administration made sure of that.

Then there's Aquino, son of two of the most beloved (depending on which generation you ask) people in the country - Ninoy and Cory.

He has their legacy but does he have their acumen? Let me ask this: during his term as senator what exactly did he do? What laws did he pass that could have benefited all of us?

At a loss on what how to answer? That's OK. You're not alone. Neither does anyone else. Maybe he just "thinks" he did something good for the country or that he will do good. Who knows to whom he listens to.

And hey he got the Iglesia Ni Cristo's endorsement. Wow talk about not being corruptable. The fact that you are actively seeking out endorsement from one religious entity or another means you are already corrupt.

And don't get me started with the whole separation of church and state thing. It's only on paper anyway so technically are we really a secular country.

Maybe we should all convert to Islam so then we don't have to pretend we don't let religion control our country. That just makes us hypocrites.

But that's better than the hubris to call yourself the "son of god" much like Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, head of the sect "Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name." Like I said in my last article I always thought there was only one "son of god?" Well depending on which religion you follow of course.

But I suppose it's OK for GIBO to accept that kind of an endorsement. After all, he hasn't been really getting any support from the administration - considering he is the administration candidate.

I guess Arroyo is a little busy trying to cover her tracks and campaign to become a congresswoman.

But why bother getting endorsement from the religious groups when you can have one for your very own.

Brother Eddie (Eduardo C. Villanueva) is also a televangelist like Quiboloy but to his merit he hasn't openly declared himself to be the son of god (that I know of). If he did then that would make him and Quiboloy brothers.

He has his own cadre of followers under his "Jesus is Lord" church so in that regard he has an advantage over GIBO and Aquino.

And should I say anything about former president Joseph Estrada? Probably not. Besides what is there to say. He was president and was ousted in a people power (sounds familiar) and was replaced by his back-stabbing vice-president at the time and soon to be congresswoman Arroyo.

And since he has been pardoned wants to be president again so he can get back against the people who ousted him especially Arroyo. OK OK I made that one up but will it really be a surprise if he has that in mind? I won't.

Richard Gordon - Former Mayor of Olongapo and Chairman of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority. See I liked him when he was still Mayor of Olongapo. He was able to bring order from what was a chaotic "sin" city that was Olongapo.

And I was one of those who supported the call for the retention of the U.S. bases during that nationwide campaign that he led.

But back to what we were talking about. He's a dark-horse and who know he may do good. Of course if surveys are to be believed he hasn't a chance in hell but then again he doesn't believe in surveys anyway.

Now if only he learns how to just shut up.

Then there's Madrigal and Perlas. Sorry to say I don't know squat about them so I'll leave it at that. Note to their spin doctors - maybe everyone else don't know much about them too. Just a hint.

Anyway regardless of which one you vote for it will not be a 100% guarantee that they will be the medicine for what ails the country.

Will they be more corrupt or less corrupt than the regime they are replacing? Who knows. The thing is only time will tell.

The sad part is, our country doesn't have anymore time to spare.

Agricultural Sector Needs Support - Especially Our Farmers - AAMBIS-OWA #19

In our country agriculture holds an equally important status as the other economic sectors. It plays an important role in our country's economic growth and development.

We have a total of 4.8 million agricultural farms covering an area of about 9.7 million hectares, constituting about a third of our country's total land area. While the number of farms has increased the total farm area has been decreasing.

This is mostly due to an increase in the conversion of farmland to residential and commercial purposes, especially near major urban areas.

This has resulted in the average farm size of about 2.04 hectares used for raising crops, fruit trees, livestock, poultry or in any other agricultural activity.

High cost of inputs, low price of produce, lack of capital and post-harvest facilities, labor problem, pests and diseases, an inadequate irrigation system, incomplete "farm-to-market" transportation network, along with low gate-prices add to the the main obstacles facing farmers today.

Lack of government concern and funding along with government foot-dragging, has also helped to further exacerbate the situation especially in times of environmental threats like the current El Niño weather phenomenon.

This does not help the small poor farmers who only net P12,000 for the entire harvest season.

Government emergency outlays are good but they are only a short-term patch and most of the time the money does not even reach the ones that needs them.

What's needed is the will and zealousness to advocate for the needs and concerns of the farmers of our country.


AAMBIS-OWA is a non-profit national organization of small marginalized farmers that started as a half-hour Sunday radio program in Iloilo that soon spread beyond the boundaries of Region IV.

As a farmer's organization, AAMBIS-OWA understands the basic problems plaguing our farmers from the farmer's perspective. It is their purpose to promote and support agendas that help uplift the economic welfare and rights of marginalized farmers and their families around the country.

Their legislative agenda includes:

• Streamlining or overhauling of government and public institutions within the agricultural sector.

• Agricultural competitiveness and modernization

• Infrastructure development, especially farm irrigation and farm-to-market roads

• Training for farmers and their families on modern farming technologies and alternative income sources

• Government monitoring on trading and pricing

• Crop insurance and financing
  

AAMBIS-OWA seeks party-list representation in the House of Representatives to fight for a comprehensive and sustainable legislative agenda for marginalized farmers. Through a common voice, AAMBIS wishes to bring attention and to find rightful solutions to the grassroots of the agricultural industry

It's not about asking for complicated answers to the basic problems of marginalized farmers. It's about asking for simple and essential solutions as seen from the eyes of the poorest farmers in the country.

Give our farmers the representation and zealous advocacy that they deserve.

VOTE AAMBIS-OWA #19 ON MAY 10TH!

From A DOJ Reversal To INC Support To Moving The Elections

What a hectic week as the elections finally winds down to the last 5 days or so.

Will we see a new president? Will it be Aquino?

A lot of pundits are saying more than likely what with the endorsement of the Iglesia Ni Cristo of presidentiable Benigno Aquino III. After all that between 5 to 8 million votes right there since the INC tend to vote as a block.

Hmmm I wonder whatever happened to free will? But I won't delve any deeper because I won't want to offend anyone.

So there, that's the situation when it comes to endorsements. Of course it's not a sure thing yet because now the rumors of failed elections are getting stronger and stronger especially after that failure of mock elections using the PCOS machines.

Give me a break - corrupted memory disks? Can't even read the ballots? Not all candidates are on file?

My first question is why only now, when there's only a few days left until election day did the Comelec, in all its intelligence (or lack thereof), test the machines?

Why did they not do it a few weeks ago when things could have been taken cared of? Without rushing? Are they so looking forward to failed elections?

At the same time why do they have a problem with the logical and proper call from concerned sectors to move back elections a week or two?

I see nothing wrong with such a plan of action and it is the proper thing to do considering the circumstances. If the Comelec really wants to show the people here and around the world that we have credible elections then they should agree to moving back elections if only to make sure things are working properly.

As it is the potential of failed elections looms larger than before. And so will the potential resulting disarray should that event happen.

Is it because of pride that the Comelec doesn't want to move back the elections even if it is the proper thing to do?

It's hard enough that they are not being trusted but this is not helping them one bit. In fact now it's adding to the distrust that the people have against them.

To continue is just plain "hubris" and has no place when the future of our nation is at stake.

They should just cop to their mistake and move back in order for the elections to not only succeed but also have credibility.

At least Justice Secretary Alberto Agra was "man" enough to reverse his resolution clearing two members of the Ampatuan clan of multiple murder charges. If only he had looked at all the evidence and the witnesses he wouldn't have had to reverse himself.

But at least he did before it was too late.

As for our May 10 elections . . . we can only hope.

Give OUR Farmers The Representation They Deserve - AAMBIS-OWA #19

Our country is still primarily agriculture despite our so-called claim to being an industrialized economy. While many of us are crammed into the main urban areas a good majority of us still live in the rural areas and support themselves through agriculture.

The agricultural sector divided into the different sub-sectors of farming, fisheries, livestock and forestry. Added together they represent roughtly about a third of our total labor force and contribute about a fourth of our country's total gross domestic product.

That's a sizeable chunk of our labor and GDP. And yet despite that the agricultural sector is not protected and is in fact threatened.

A major concern is the conversion of agricultural land into residential subdivisions, resorts or industrial parks. This is because land owners find it more profitable to sell their land than to manage it.

One reason is the lack of capital to spend on seeds, fertilizers and other essentials needed to make our farms more productive than they are currently.

Add to this is the lack of infrastructure support in the form of "to market" roads and irrigations systems. Because of this, most farm land lie fallow as farmers wait for the rainy season in order to plant.

And due to environmental damages due to illegal logging and mining, most watershed areas are already gone, resulting in water being wasted as there's nothing to keep and hold the water from the rains so they can be added to the depleted water table. The result is drought.

This is further exacerbated by the onset of the El Niño weather phenomenon. The instense heat is drying up farmland, water reservoirs and waterways all over the country. This has caused many farmers to stop planting in order to cut their losses.

Of course this has become a vicious cycle - farmers don't plant so they borrow to live and continue to borrow because they can't pay off their debt forcing them to sell their land to land developers resulting in further losses to the agricultural sector.

The result would be more importation of food in the future, especially rice - an ironic event considering we used to be a net rice exporter back in the day and we have the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños.

What's needed is government support which unfortunately our government seem reluctant to give.

That's why it is imperative that our country's farmers are given representation so that they have advocates in congress willing and able to fight for what they deserve. And AAMBIS-OWA, number #19 in the party-list in the May 10th national elections are the farmer's advocates.

AAMBIS-OWA is a non-profit national organization of small and marginalized farmers that understand the problems currently facing our country's farmers and has within its means the organization and ability to organize activities that can help farmers and farm workers around the country.

Their legislative agenda is for the marginalized farmers and is centered on the basic and prevalent problems of its members.

Problem 1: Production is stagnant or declining

• Streamlining or overhauling of government and public institutions within the agricultural sector

• Linkages and partnerships to foster agricultural innovation

• Advocacy on agricultural competitiveness and modernization

• Infrastructure development, especially farm irrigation and farm-to-market roads.

Problem 2: Farmers continue to live below poverty level

• Technology transfer through learning centers to increase production output and minimize production costs.

• Training for farmers and their families on modern farming technologies and alternative income sources

• Research and development to improve cultivation, intercropping, production, processing, marketing, registration, and export

• Government monitoring on farming supply costs

• Quality control standards on all stages of the industry to gain better trading terms

Problem 3: Low farm gate prices

• Organization and support of cooperatives and farmers'groups.

• Integrated processing centrals owned by farmers or farmers' groups.

• Government monitoring on trading and pricing

Problem 4: Farmers and their families are without economic and social security

• Magna-carta for the socio-economic, health, and educational benefits of marginalized farmers and their dependents

• Crop insurance and financing

• Training and education for dependents, whether through scholarships or seminars, on entrepreneurial alternatives

Simply put, AAMBIS-OWA does not ask for complicated answers to the basic problems of marginalized farmers. It asks for simple and essential solutions as seen from the eyes of the poorest farmers in the country.

Our farmers toil the soil in order for us to eat and for our country to grow and develop. Why aren't we doing more to help them?

Help our farmers so they can help themselves and as a result help ourselves. Their future is our future as well.

In the upcoming May 10th national elections give our farmers the representation that they deserve. Give them the advocates that will zealously fight for their benefit and well-being.

Give them AAMBIS-OWA #19 in the party-list.

VOTE AAMBIS-OWA #19!

And Here I Thought There Was Only One Son Of God

Apparently there are two. One we all know is Jesus Christ and the other one is apparently so called "Appointed Son of God" televangelist Pastor Apollo Quiboloy.

And of course to make it more interesting and/or controversial depending on who you ask, Quiboloy has endorsed presidential candidate Gilbert Teodoro Jr. making Gibo the "anointed one."

Which means that Gibo will get Quiboloy's sect's, called "Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name," four million or so follower's votes.

Whew that was a mouthful.

Ah what presidentiables will do in order to win that coveted seat. Get the indorsement and be in debt.

So does this mean Gibo will be the next president? Is this an assured sign from god that he, indeed, will be the one to lead our nation for the next six years.

Who knows? Stranger things have happened. But one thing is sure it may not work that way.

After all, he is getting endorsed by a self-proclaimed "son of god" and you know what they say about "the devil quoting the scriptures if it benefits him."

And besides there are other big groups out there just raring to put the other presidentiables under their thumb.

And they say we have a dirty political system here in the Philippines.

For shame . . .