rappler.com-June 26
It’s been about a year since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. first took up the challenge of revamping the Department of Agriculture (DA) as its secretary. And so far, he’s determined to cling on, repeatedly saying that he isn’t done “fixing” the DA – putting in “structural changes” and “guaranteeing” sufficient food supply and affordable food prices. Marcos’ move to lead the DA himself seemed to signal that agriculture – a sector that had long been neglected – was now the priority. “By choosing to be the concurrent secretary of agriculture, it set the right policy direction that this government is giving special attention to the agriculture sector,” Jayson Cainglet, executive director of Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG), told Rappler on Saturday, June 24. Rappler speaks with Department of Agriculture spokesperson Kristine Evangelista about what President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has done so far to address food security and affordability challenges. “The local agriculture industry was given renewed hope, though guarded and cautious.” That hope, however, has been quickly tested. Since Marcos took office, crisis after crisis has rocked the department. The price of sugar was the first to soar, then onions, then eggs. Soon after, hearings in both the House and Senate have dug up alleged cartels controlling the sugar and onion trade. Through it all, Filipinos have suffered under rates of inflation not seen in 14 years. The World Bank also warned that “the recent rise in food prices threatens the gains the country has made in combatting malnutrition and stunting” as Filipinos on the margins further struggled to afford a healthy diet. Rappler quantified just how bad things had gotten. Using data from the DA’s daily price monitoring in Metro Manila markets, we tracked the price of agricultural commodities from January 2022 to the present. And the result was telling: prices of several kitchen staples – onions, sugar, and eggs, in particular – have spiked, while other commodities have experienced swings in prices more volatile than before. Scroll through the full charts below. Read more at:
