THREE skinny children jump from the foot of a bridge in Tondo. Food and health is a primary goal of the government in its food security program. Roman Prospero (Conclusion)

Former Rep. Jose “Peping” Cojuangco said he was born an optimist and never doubted the Philippines can produce enough rice and other critical items against the present backdrop of rising food imports and widespread smuggling of rice, garlic, onions, poultry and other meat products.

He recalled that when President Fidel V. Ramos was president, a rice shortage caused the price of rice to hit P40 a kilo. This pushed

the price of palay higher to P20 to P25 a kilo. But the shortage was reversed in just six months by giving farmers support and the motivation to plant two crops a year.

“Knowing these problems, our first thrust was to tackle our rice shortage. We started by drawing support from entrepreneurs to irrigate un-irrigated land by running two-pipe length shallow wells to serve farmers who paid for them upon request,” said Cojuangco, who had also served as Food Security Adviser in the Arroyo administration.

But even without irrigation support, Cojuangco said farmers would plant two crops a year if assured of a fair price.

“Our problem with rice was, and still is, marketing. Our poor land reform beneficiary—rice farmers are at the mercy of traders and usurers. Because of the absence of post-harvest facilities, they have to sell their produce as fast as possible,” regardless of price, he said. He also said the National Food Administration, tasked with subsidizing the rice sector, only buys from farmers using trader prices, which is absurd.

As Food Security Adviser at the time, Cojuangco sketched a program urging big businesses to put up modern integrated rice mills and produce enough rice to supply the needs of their employees and the market. With the modern rice mills in place, it was then the obligation of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to match the rice mills with land farmed under the Agrarian Reform Community (ARC) Program. “The advantage of this program was that modern rice mills can recover up to 10 percent higher than our existing rice mills,” said Cojuangco.

Because integrated rice mills operate a dryer and have storage facilities, the program allows them to buy palay P1 per kilo higher than prevailing prices and sell it to their employees P1 cheaper per kilo and still make a profit.

That extra P1 a kilo for the farmers and P1 less for the employees is a big boost to their livelihood, said Cojuangco, who had authored the Agrarian Reform Community Law modeled after the kibbutz of Israel at the 19th Congress.

The kibbutz model, explained Cojuangco, extends to the farmer group economies of scale that no individual farmer can achieve on his own and make the endeavor profitable. “As an economic-sized farm, the group can avail of loan (terms) better than as individuals. The law also provided financial assistance to the community,” he said.

And that was precisely what’s wrong with the land reform that had been implemented through the years. Farms around the world were scaled up and consolidated into sizeable farms, according to Cojuangco.

“But in the Philippines, we were still breaking up our agricultural land into small, uneconomic farms. Land distribution without any attention of helping the new small landowners diminished our agricultural productivity to the point that we are now in a mess, heavily dependent on other countries to shore up our buffer stocks, especially rice,” said Cojuangco.

“Land distribution alone is not land reform. For this reason, during deliberations of the 8th Congress for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) under the administration of President Cory Aquino, I introduced an amendment (setting aside) at least 25 percent of the land reform fund should go to support services because it was obvious that the beneficiaries could not achieve success without support.”

That 25 percent went to support services of the DAR instead of the tillers, Cojuangco said.

He also proposed for the NFA to buy 60 percent of the estimated crop at a fair price to boost rice farmer income, allowing them to plant the maximum crop cycle in a year. He explained that buying 60 percent in advance provided the farmer with operating capital and prevented him from borrowing. The remaining 40 percent represented the farmer’s net income. The buyer, on the other hand, is assured of a least break-even price at the very least by buying at a low price.

Cojuangco said they also found novel ways to maximize profit for coconut farmers and those engaged in the production of coco products.

“We built a plant in Quezon that could produce everything that is marketable, from husks, shell, flour, virgin coconut oil and now, coconut water, which commands a very good return. The idea was for this plant and others we built to buy the coconut from the farmers at a higher price considering all the products that are produced.

“On top of this, an additional 5 to 10 percent of the price will be given the farmer in shares of stock. It was our estimate that in seven to 10 years, the plant will be owned by the farmers. At the time, I had seven governors asking to have a plant built in their province.

Unfortunately, because of politics, our group was disbanded and the program shelved. “Our rough estimate is that almost 30 percent of our population make their living in rice and coconut farming,” said Cojuangco.

Cojuangco said he is of the firm belief that to ensure there would be an ample supply of locally produced food on every Filipino table, the DA, DAR, and even the national resources and trade departments, should be coordinated by a super body.

Asked whether he would consider being a part of such a food security superbody, Cojuangco replied: “Agriculture has been a part of my life and even as a mayor, I was hurt that the lowly singkamas (water turnip) had different prices in each barangay, while tomatoes then had no buyers at just 50 centavos a basket. If given the chance, I still would like to continue our effort in agricultural marketing,” said Cojuangco.

Fast-forward to present from that interview with Cojuangco two years ago, the Supreme Court has ruled that Hacienda Luisita Inc. has already complied in full with its order seven years ago to distribute to about 6,000 farmworker-beneficiaries (FWBs) the unused or unspent balance from the P1.33 billion sale of its three lots to private and government entities.

In coming with its two-page resolution, the SC cited the audit conducted by a three-member panel created by DAR.

“To sum up, all three members of the audit panel have determined that the legitimate corporate expenses of HLI for the years 1998 up to 2011, coupled with the taxes and expenses related to the sale of the 3 percent share already distributed to the FWBs, far exceeded the proceeds of the sale of the adverted 580.51-hectare lot,” said the SC.

“In net effect, there is no longer any unspent or unused balance of the sales proceeds available for distribution,” the high court ruled.

Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Duterte, who has ordered portions of the resort island of Boracay to be put under agrarian reform, has given the DAR a marching order to launch the second phase of the program.

Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones said, “The word the President used is a ‘renaissance’ of land reform in the country,” focusing on the distribution of idle government lands.

Some 561,000 hectares of agricultural land are being targeted by the DAR under Duterte to be distributed to landless farmers at an average of 50,000 hectares a year.