Looking back to the first year of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s administration leads us to believe that he has pivoted out of his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte’s tight embrace of China and rebuilt friendships with old allies, particularly the US and Europe.
In his official trips abroad to meet with leaders of other Association of Southeast Asian Nations, he never failed to be emphatic about the need to comply with international law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Explicit appeals had also been made to European nations to support the enforcement of UNCLOS and the historic decision of the Arbitral Tribunal in the South China Arbitration (Philippines v. People’s Republic of China) of 12 July 2016 that unanimously favored our beloved Philippines in its dispute against Chinese claims on Philippine territorial waters.
In rebuilding ties with the US, four more US bases were added to the existing five sites under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement or EDCA that was signed to bolster the Visiting Forces Agreement between the two countries.
While we leave the wisdom of more EDCA sites to the security sector, which should prioritize the national interest above anything else, there is another equally important sector confronted by challenges.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration raised the El Niño alert, saying it may declare the start of the phenomenon this week as it expects it in the next two months with a probability of 70 percent.
Defined as a climate phenomenon characterized by the abnormal warming of the surface waters of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, El Niño could have significant effects on global weather patterns, including on agriculture.
Given that farmers, policymakers, and agricultural communities must monitor weather forecasts and adapt their practices to mitigate potential impacts, the President continues to take the lead in handling agriculture — a stand that has been met with askance by many, even among those in the government.
Eyebrows were raised at the seeming inability to effectively address what bedeviled agriculture in the past year, including the ginormous prices of essential commodities like sugar, eggs, and onions, which at one point rocketed to as high as P700 a kilo.
Behind the critical headaches in the agri sector are the already suffering Filipinos whose pockets are badly frayed by inflation rates, and farmers losing their only source of livelihood.
A lingering controversy is the government’s addressing of the soaring rise in sugar prices through importation. In 2022, Sugar Order No. 4 was issued by the Sugar Regulatory Administration, giving the nod to import 300,000 metric tons of sugar.
Who would forget that the denial resulted in the firing of SRA and DA officials, along with then-Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez?
Likewise puzzling is the recent selection of just three entities to import 440,000 metric tons of sugar.
It remains unclear who handpicked sugar traders All Asian Countertrade, Sucden Philippines Inc., and Edison Lee Marketing Corporation. Either way, it doesn’t look good and bears clarification.
Everyone, including many of the President’s supporters, is clueless as to why, despite the myriad issues and problems that he has to attend to in all other sectors, a full-time secretary is yet to be appointed — someone who could give the department and the sector his/her full-time attention.
Faced with the imminent threats of El Nîno, time is of the essence. Lowly Filipinos cannot afford to wait unprepared for the dry spell with shifts in rainfall patterns. Whatever it takes, it is crucial to act quickly, efficiently, and without delay.
In the words of Albert Einstein, “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.”
To solve agricultural problems, we need to think beyond the existing mindset or approach that might have contributed to those problems in the first place.