OP-ED OPINION-COLUMN: Philippine is in a sinkhole; we need change
– Sara Soliven De Guzman
The Philippine Star
Our President continues to mumble, making it difficult for people to understand his messages. All that is clear is his expression of anger, hate and his love for China.
Many Filipinos are upset, frustrated and worried. The country hasn’t recovered from the second wave and here we are opening our doors to the outside world again. Yes, guidelines have been written but are they really implemented to protect us? Why have passengers been able to cut short their quarantine period? As a result, they bring in different COVID-19 variants. Why are the prices of COVID-19 medications and other medical supplies skyrocketing without government drawing the line? Why is government continuing to make the COVID-19 vaccines shipment permits for private entities difficult to enter the country? I thought the President instructed his men to remove all the red tape on this issue? Was all of that just for show?
The reason people are turning to Ivermectin and Lianhwa is because they see that government hasn’t been able to handle the COVID-19 crisis well. Worse, government has difficulty controlling the virus. It seems that we are the only country in Asia or even in the world with all the COVID-19 variants. Susmariosep! So, people are starting to take initiatives by creating “self-help” gap measures in order to survive the pandemic. Yes, this is about lost trust in the government. Sad!
Another evident display of public mistrust is the mushrooming of “community pantries” all over the country despite the big government “ayuda” program. Silly, how you even have the Department of the Interior and Local Government (or the DILG) directing the organizers of the community pantries to get permits from the LGUs. Don’t they realize that we could have easily donated to the LGUs, but why would we? Simply put, it’s the lack of trust we have in our local barangays.
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Last week, we saw the President happy and excited while listening to Secretary Tugade’s report on the traffic situation in EDSA. Tugade said that traffic has improved in EDSA. He compared how traffic was like waging a war before but now travel time from Caloocan (Monumento) to Pasay City has been reduced from nearly three hours to just 45 minutes. All these, he attributed to the implementation of the EDSA Busway project and the designated 296 kilometers protected bike lanes.
I don’t understand why the President allows such a foolish report with such bad timing. First of all, how will the public believe this report when for almost a month now we have all been locked up due to the MECQ. Do we need to remind Tugade that there is a big reduction of travelers nowadays? Second, traffic from NAIA has lessened (from Pasay) because we have very few flights coming in on a daily basis. Third, many business and trade entities have closed down or have minimized transactions, again resulting to less travel.
For almost a month now, EDSA has been the road less traveled. So, what is Tugade raving about again? Is this what he calls an achievement? Such is an example of the President’s brilliant minds at work.
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Another honor student in the President’s Cabinet of course, aside from the valedictorian Secretary Duque, is our Secretary of Agriculture William Dar. You would think that he could have brought back the glory days of Philippine agriculture, specially now when everyone is turning back to tilling the land, grazing animals and fishing. But it seems this man wants everything “imported.” Reminds me of the mentality of a modern day Juan Tamad or a honcho who has joined the bandwagon of the spoils of government.
Let’s talk about the mackarel fish or our galunggong. I have difficulty eating this expensive and imported fish from China knowing it originally comes from the West Philippine Sea. What is Dar’s take on this? Why encourage the importation of a fish that clearly comes from our own backyard?
What about the ‘pork’ issue? Remember, in July 2019 we were hit by the African swine fever (ASF). Hog raisers were forced to do mass slaughtering. So, what happened next? Unfortunately, up to this day, the problem continues to persist. Unbelievable!
Many countries that experienced ASF infection have already established guidelines and have been successful. What is taking our Secretary of Agriculture such a long time? And why did he result to importation all of a sudden?
Study shows that ASF does not last long in a protein-free environment and in tropical areas. In other colder countries, after thorough disinfection and strict implementation of health protocols, repopulation of hog farms start from 10 percent capacity with full monitoring (40 days after thorough disinfection) until they reach 100 percent capacity. Why can’t we do the same? Why make it such a difficult process?
Did the Bureau of Animal Industry or the Department of Agriculture continue to delay the guidelines or did they create another sinkhole so that no solution can be found except to “import?” Is the President happy to note that our hog raisers have lost their businesses to importation? Is he happy that we need to depend on other countries for our basic needs? Secretary Dar, why oh why?
By the way, why did the Department of Agriculture ask hog raisers to depopulate their hogs? Why did they not allow hog raisers to repopulate? This is the basic truth on why we have pork shortage and price increases – the law of supply and demand.
Prior to this increase in meat importation quota and the issuance of pork SRP, the price of imported pork liempo sometime in February was only P290 per kilo. Some few weeks ago after the expiration of EO 124 on April 7, 2021, DTI issued an SRP of imported pork liempo now at P350 per kilo. Sanamagan!
I thought meat importation would solve the problem. Why is the price of meat still high? And why is the tariff of imported meat lowered? We have four facts at hand: 1) The price of imported pork in the market is increased to P350 from P290 as per SRP; 2) The tariff of meat importation is lowered; 3) The quota of meat importation is increased; 4) The hog farmers in identified infected areas are not yet repopulating for almost two years now.
Congress has the power to revoke EO 128. Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Senate agriculture committee chair Cynthia Villar and Senator Kiko Pangilinan will file a joint resolution to revoke EO 128 and provide for the appropriate tariff and minimum access volume of pork importation. Now let’s see who amongst our congressmen will help. Abangan!
