It's More Than Time To Allocate More Money For Agriculture Productivity Programs Than For 4Ps

Here's where Sec. Manny Pinol shows real intelligence vs. Rep. Tom Villarin of the Akbayan or better called as Akbayad or Akbobo Party List. Here's the issue about 4Ps which I wrote earlier as a program where people wait for a shower of gold coins from the government. To Villarin, getting rid of 4Ps will be an "extrajudicial killing" that will affect 4.5 million families. But to Sec. Manny Pinol, he wants to reform 4Ps from a handouts program to into a productivity program.

Here's what the Business Mirror says about Sec. Pinol's proposal where PHP 70 Billion worth of 4Ps should be used for agricultural spending:

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) wants to convert the P70-billion Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) into a livelihood funding assistance instead of a cash dole-out to help improve the farm sector.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the 4Ps is a “questionable” social program as it “reduces” poor families to “a level of waiting for money from the government” instead of making them productive.

“I’m the most vocal critic of this program of the government. [It] is spending P70 billion annually [for 4Ps], which is bigger than the budget of the DA,” Pinol told the Agriculture Trade and Investment Forum at a hotel on Thursday.

“In fact, what I am saying is the 4Ps could actually be another program that could contribute to agricultural productivity if used properly. Instead of giving in forms dole-out every month, why don’t we start a livelihood program using that money?” Pinol added.

Pinol said he has received reports that the 4Ps had resulted in the declining number of workers in the rural areas, particularly in the agriculture sector.

“People are not working anymore, and they are just waiting for their allowances,” he said in an interview with reporters on the sidelines of the forum. “In fact, for years the 4Ps did not result in anything. Worse, the work force in the agriculture sector has been reduced because of it,” he added.

The DA chief has pitched his proposal many times in previous Cabinet meetings, and claimed “a lot” of Cabinet members back his idea, but did not disclose their names.

He plans to submit a memorandum to the President with his proposal, at the next Cabinet meeting in June.

“The gist of my proposal is that we should make use of the 4Ps fund for livelihood activities to increase greater food productivity,” he said.

He has in mind “food production like vegetable growing or backyard poultry growing.” However, the mechanisms and guidelines for the proposal shall be determined once it is approved.

Labor employment in the farm sector declined for the sixth straight year in 2017, sinking to a seven-year low of 10.257 million, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed. This was also the first time in 15 years that employment in agriculture fell below 11 million.

This is the sad truth that Pinol is stating in his report that 4Ps is indeed a laziness program. He has called it a questionable social program that makes poor people into beggars rather than workers. It doesn't teach them how to fish -- it only gives them fish! It's simple knowledge of Mathematics and economics that 4Ps won't create jobs, that it's just recycling government money and that the so-called 3X return and the 5.88 multiplier effect are non-existent. How can you hand over PHP 3,000.00 to 4.5 million Filipinos every month (which would total up to PHP 13.5 Billion expenditure monthly expense) and let it return back 3X with regardless what they spend? It won't especially if they decide to spend it at places that don't get taxed at all. How much money has been taxed from the handouts anyway? How much of that money will benefit the government?

Why should the Department of Agriculture get bigger budget than 4Ps? It's because we need agriculture and farmlands to survive. No farmlands should just be unscrupulously bought by the oligarchs and businessmen or be demolished for development. Where do we get a lot of our raw materials for food and manufacturing? It's all from agriculture. If there's no agriculture then the value of money is worthless. What's the use of having a lot of money if every last river is poisoned and every last tree is cut down? None. It's because while money buys food but it's never a replacement for food. At the same time, it should teach the poor to stop relying on handouts and start getting jobs. The government can help create jobs not just by opening up the economy to Foreign Direct Investment but also giving some of the poor people a chance to improve -- by participating in agricultural programs as jobs. No work, no handout of money policy or in short it's going to be a no work, no pay kind of welfare program.

I would dare agree that 4Ps has reduced the agricultural workforce to a very dangerously low level. It reminds me of how Mao Zedong's handout policy where everyone got money whether they worked or it killed agriculture. That's exactly what 4Ps is also doing with people. Who would want to work in the agricultural workforce if they keep getting handouts whether they work or not? If you get PHP 3,000.00 or higher per month even without any work then you might as well not work, right? I would rather not work if I get handouts per month. Also, for a certain crazy old man to argue that 4Ps gives the poor the money to buy their equipment to fish -- did he consider most handouts go to buying nonsense or did he take the old proverb about fishing and giving fish literally?! I wonder if he has also took note that employees are provided with their equipment to work with and not that they bring their own equipment to work -- maybe except for ballpens, right?

When more money is allocated for agriculture such as spending for sustainable technology and development for farms then that would mean more food. Some systems that could be helpful for getting better equipment, proper waste disposal, conversion of biowaste in agriculture into organic fertilizers that can be sold in place of chemical fertilizers to promote better growth, cleaning up rivers that have been long destroyed by BOTH oligarchs and squatters, find more affordable ways to yield more produce for organic farming without the use of chemicals, and the rebuilding roads and bridges that lead to farms. Farms will have better transportation and assistance whenever they are needed. Plus, it would mean replacing some transportation with better, environmentally friendly ones and have a budget for more tree planting projects at selected locations and a fee to help protect the forest from unethical loggers. 

Kudos to Sec. Pinol for his proposal. Hopefully, President Duterte will see the beauty of his plan to start allocating 4Ps budgets worth PHP 70 Billion from providing bums with money to waste to spend for agricultural development in the Philippines.