‘Mass firing’ at DAR up as Japan quits project

3511k agrarian workers affected; pullout due to peace problem

Lawmakers on Sunday denounced the government’s plan to fire some 11,000 agrarian reform employees by October as its rice self-sufficiency program suffered a serious blow from Japan’s decision to yank $159 million in funding for irrigation projects in Mindanao due to peace and order problems.

AA Kasosyo Rep. Nasser Pangandaman and Agham Rep. Angelo Palmones said the “mass firing” of personnel from the Agrarian Reform Department was an offshoot of the government’s failure to provide a safety net for them.

On the other hand, the pullout by the Japan International Cooperation Agency would put the Agriculture Department’s much-vaunted rice self-sufficiency target next year in doubt, the lawmakers said.

The House committee on agrarian reform will investigate the twin setbacks today after Pangandaman and Palmones demanded a probe.

At last week’s hearing of the House committee on appropriations led by Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, Pangandaman expressed alarm after Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio De los Reyes admitted the phaseout of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms by 2014 would render 10,973 Agrarian Reform employees nationwide jobless.

Of that number, Reyes said, only 3,000 or those involved in the delivery of services would be absorbed by the Agriculture Department.

“I am worried the government will not be able to effectively implement [the agrarian reform program] because it did not only reduce the funding for land distribution, it also would start firing the employees who would carry out the task,” Pangandaman told the Manila Standard.

Pangandaman, a former Agrarian Reform secretary, said the law allocated P30 billion annually to distribute 100,000 hectares to farmer-beneficiaries.

“I am surprised because the government reduced the budget allocation to P21.4 billion for 2013,” Pangandaman said.

“When I turned over the reins, there were more than one million hectares that had yet to be distributed. It means that in five years, which was the life span given to [the program], the department needs to distribute 200,000 annually at a reduced budget and with a reduced number of personnel,”

“How would the government expect the DAR to accomplish the task and help pave the way for rice sufficiency? We demand a comprehensive plan as to how the government plans to implement the land distribution program and why was there no contingency or fall-back plans for the 10,973 employees nationwide.

“Most of the 10,973 employees are in their 50s now. They are still at their prime but who would hire them at their age? They have nowhere to go, yet the government would tell us they would be fired and nothing can be done about it. We reject that,”

Delos Reyes said some 640,000 hectares were up for distribution under the agrarian reform program.

He said his department aimed to distribute some 180,000 hectares for this year alone and 260,000 hectares in 2013.

The remaining 200,000 hectares would be distributed in the first half of 2014.

Also last week, the administrator of the National Irrigation Administration, Antonio Nangel, confirmed that the Japanese had withdrawn financial assistance to the second phase of the Malitubog-Maridagao irrigation project due to the poor peace-and-order situation in Mindanao.

The announcement led Palmones to call for an investigation of a P1.7-billion allocation to the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan program under Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles, which was supposed to provide livelihood projects and empower the people in the insurgency-stricken communities.

But Palmones said the P1.7 billion was not even earmarked in the Palace-proposed Net Expenditure Program, nor in the national budget bill.

“We were surprised that there was a classic insertion of P1.7 billion only after the President signed the 2012 national budget into law,” Palmones said.

With the huge peace and order funding, Palmones said, “heads must roll” for the JICA pullout.

“The peace and order situation in the previous administration was more serious and JICA was there precisely to help address the problem by providing financial assistance to the farmers,” said Palmones, who comes from Cotabato, where the JICA project was located. –Christine F. Herrera, Manila Standard Today