The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) only granted P200 billion out of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA’s) P513 billion requested budget for 2025, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel Jr. said Monday.
“It is unfortunate na ‘yung request natin na P500 billion ay naging P200 billion. I guess, it all boils down sa kung ano ang kaya ng ating gobyerno na i-provide,” Tiu-Laurel said during the DA budget deliberations before the House Appropriations panel.
(It is unfortunate that our P500 billion request was reduced to P200 billion. I guess, it all boils down to how much the government can provide.)
“But of course, manghihingi pa kami ng kaunting dagdag sa [bicameral conference], before the end of the year,” the DA chief added.
(We’ll ask for a slight increase in the bicameral conference.)
Agri party-list Representative Wilbert Lee criticized the budget cut, saying that it was not in accordance with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s vow to prioritize the agriculture sector.
“Are we really prioritizing agriculture here? Are we serious? The Secretary said they asked for P513 billion, and they were only given P200 billion. That is a huge difference,” Lee said in a statement.
“Are we even serious here? How do we bring down the prices of goods, commodities if we don’t allocate enough funding for the agriculture sector? We also want to increase our food production, but the budget was reduced. Para tayong naglolokohan lang. Dapat ibigay yung ni-request ng ahensya, at gastusin nang tama,” Lee added.
(It is as if we are fooling ourselves here. We should grant the DA’s budget request and spend it properly.)
In addition, Lee said that while the proposed 2025 budget for pre-harvest services reached P58.45 billion, only P13.51 billion was allocated for post-harvest facilities.
“We all know that our farmers’ problem is the lack of post-harvest facilities. Why are we not increasing the budget for his, if not level with the pre-harvest budget? Why the huge disparity?” Lee asked.
Further, Lee said there was a need to boost market linkages as seen with the recent incident of excess tomatoes when Nueva Ecija farmers had to forego or sell their produce for lower prices.
“This is a lingering problem of one area having too much supply while another area has scarce supply. This situation is made worse by the lack of dryers, cold storage facilities, machinery, as well as a lack of food terminals or Kadiwa centers,” Lee said.
TGP party-list lawmaker Jose “Bong” Teves Jr. agreed.
“Why are we here? It’s because we need to support the budget request of the DA,” Teves chimed. — DVM, GMA Integrated News
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