The President has said it right: Agriculture is the “weakest link” in the Philippine economy. This was the report of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno in a TV interview in which he said the President is aware that “it is agriculture that is dragging down the country.” Consequently, the culprit behind this lag, or the reason for all this deadweight, is none other than Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol.

“The toughest challenge of DA had to be the rice shortage that led to calls for Piñol to resign.

Reminiscent of the television quiz show “The Weakest Link,” where contestants are asked a series of questions and are given a chance to vote off who they feel contributed the least or underperformed at the end of each round, we can assume that Diokno merely echoed the sentiments of the other members of the Cabinet — all of whom have been working their tails off — as it was publicly revealed who they felt must be eliminated. In the show, the “weakest link” is effectively voted off and this prompts the host to say, “You are the weakest link, goodbye.”

The numbers do not lie. In 2018, the agriculture sector grew by only 0.8 percent, as admitted by Piñol, down from 3.9 percent growth in 2017. This was way off the target production targets of 2.5 to 3.5 percent set by the government. Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles had taken notice of this dismal performance and lent a helping hand to a battered Piñol by recently stating: “We will strengthen agriculture through more focused assistance with the end in view of addressing farmers’ livelihood concerns, increasing their productivity and ensuring supply stability and food security for our people.” It seems that Piñol can’t make it by himself.

In an attempt to save face from this humiliating performance, Piñol puts the blame on three things: lack of budget, 2018 having been a bad year and the purported complicatedness of agriculture. None of these holds water.

Piñol reasoned that the term “weakest link” is only defined by how much the government lost in agriculture. He stated that the Department of Agriculture (DA), in 2016, had a budget of P65 billion, but this was reduced to P55 billion the following year, then increased to P60 billion in 2018. This reasoning does not make sense since, despite the lower budget, the performance of DA in 2017 was much better than in 2018. Regardless, all this is water under the bridge now since the DA is poised to receive a windfall of a budget for 2019 in the amount of P123.7 billion or, should former President and House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo get her way, a whopping P143.7 billion. If Piñol still underperforms this year, then we all know that money was never the problem.

According to Piñol, 2018 was horrible for agriculture mainly due to the string of 12 storms and typhoons that hit the country. However, his slow reaction to these events was highlighted by his absence at the Isabela briefing last November 2018 to assess the damage brought by typhoon “Rosita.” To recall, the President looked for the absent Piñol and said, “I think somebody has to call the attention of Manny. He keeps boasting that he has a lot of money. Now is the time for him to spend all of it.”

The biggest controversy that hit the DA in 2018 was really not the typhoons, since the country is beset by natural phenomena every year that it has come to a point of acceptance and normality. The toughest challenge of DA had to be the rice shortage that led to calls for Piñol to resign. These calls may have had some basis.

If we look back at one hearing on budget, the Agriculture chief, upon being asked about the issue of rice hoarding by businessmen, reasoned that this was not illegal per se but was merely “inventory management.” Legislators, including former House Appropriations Chair, now Secretary Nograles, were surprised by his answer. Then National Food Authority Chief Jason Aquino’s head was chopped at that time, and Piñol got off the hook, but the latter’s performance was still lackluster.

Another matter in 2018 where Piñol failed to impress was the improvement of lives of our farmers. This was noted by presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo at a recent press briefing where he said, “The Chief Executive likewise instructed Secretary of Agriculture Emmanuel Piñol to exert more efforts in assuring that the plight of farmers would be lifted, in the President’s words, ‘to a degree of comfort.’”

In the end, Piñol blames the complicated nature of agriculture, which he himself understands. This is a common answer to technical issues, something we usually get from talyers or fly-by-night mechanics to justify why the car they repaired broke down days after taken out of the shop.

Piñol, in the same TV interview, argued that agriculture cannot be quantified, that there is something in agriculture that you cannot explain in numbers and statistics. Then he later says that agriculture will be saved only if there are more investments in it — isn’t investment a number, too?

Piñol now insists that the President sign the Rice Tariffication Bill to bring down the price of rice in the Philippines. Unfortunately, this is an admission that the Philippines is nowhere near self-sufficiency in rice production, one of the tasks of the DA. All this adds up to a sad performance. The days must be counted before the President says the famous line, “You are the weakest link, goodbye.”