Former senator and senatorial candidate Kiko Pangilinan is pushing for the Department of Agriculture (DA) to have a total budget of P800 billion over the next six years.

For that to happen, the agency would need an additional P600 billion spread out over six years.

“We can achieve this if we increase the DA’s budget by P100 billion every year until it reaches P800 billion,” the former senator, who also served as food security secretary during the Aquino administration, emphasized.

This funding, he said, would be used to expand crop insurance, establish drying and cold storage facilities, build silos for rice and corn, and provide other aid-related support for farmers, among other initiatives. The additional funding would also go toward hiring extension workers to ensure that farmers and fisherfolk receive the necessary support services.

“This additional funding will support drying facilities, fertilizers, pesticides, and cold storage for our farmers,” he explained, noting that reducing rice prices depends on the kind of support agricultural workers like farmers can receive from the government.

Pangilinan, who has been advocating for food security for the past 15 years, recalled his success in bringing down rice inflation and overall inflation in 2015.

“We can lower rice prices, but as they say, you put your money where your mouth is. You do not put the money in your pocket as a public servant,” he added.

He also expressed concern over recent studies showing that 36 percent of Filipinos are experiencing hunger due to high food prices and other goods. Pangilinan pointed out how the full implementation of the Sagip Saka Act can address this issue.

The law, which allows both national and local governments to buy directly from farmers and fisherfolk without public bidding, was a promise that he fulfilled in 2019.

With access to government agencies as a market, the former senator said that farmers would have increased revenues, empowering them to produce more crops and goods. An improved supply chain would bring down food prices in the market.

Pangilinan, who has been advocating for food security for the past 15 years, recalled his success in bringing down rice inflation and overall inflation in 2015.

During his one-year term as food security czar, he was able to reduce rice inflation from 15 percent to 0.8 percent in just one year, while overall inflation dropped to 1.5 percent.

To lower rice prices at the time, he also authorized the National Food Authority (NFA) to sell rice at P27 to P32 per kilo.

“When traders saw that the rice we were distributing was cheap, they lowered their prices as well,” he recalled, adding that he also went after smugglers and blacklisted abusive traders and middlemen.

“We were able to do it before, and we can do it again,” Pangilinan said.

If he wins a seat in next month’s midterm elections, he promised to work with everyone, regardless of political affiliation.

“Hunger has no color. The solution has no color. Let us focus on the cries of the people, not just because it is our mandate but because it is the public service our countrymen deserve,” he vowed.