Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan called on senators to pass Senate Bill No. 1624, which will create the Congressional Commission on Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food Security (AGRICOM) to address the pervasive threats to the country’s agriculture sector and national food security.
In a sponsorship speech delivered on Wednesday, December 17, he urged fellow senators to pass his proposed measure that will create the AGRICOM in a bid “to finally confront what is broken in our agri and fisheries sector and fix it, before the costs grow even higher and the hunger affects even more.”
“Ang tagal na nating ipinagliliban ang reporma. Hindi na tayo makapaghihintay pa. Ngayon ang panahon ng pagkilos,” Pangilinan said. “Buo-in na natin ang agri and fisheries food security commission. Huwag nating itapon ang pagkakataong ito.”
In creating the commission, he clarified that it would not be a permanent bureaucracy; rather, it is a three-year intervention designed to seek concrete and targeted reforms “that the government is politically bound to act on.”
SB No. 1624 will harmonize the policies and programs of the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Cooperatives Development Authority (CDA), and other government agencies in charge of agriculture as it seeks to marry the overlapping mandates of these agencies.
The commission will also, among other things, “restructure and streamline agriculture and fisheries-related bureaucracies to address their institutional weaknesses and shortcomings, including the relationship between and among national, provincial, and local stakeholders in order to effectively implement agriculture and fisheries policies and programs, including the transfer of information and technology, particularly at the grassroots level.”
Pangilinan said the AGRICOM seeks to identify the challenges in the entire food system—supply chain, laws, mandates, formation, climate risks, and the experiences of farmers, fishers, traders, middlemen, consumers, wholesalers, and retailers.
“It will lay down medium- and long-term development paths with measurable targets: higher yields, higher incomes, better infrastructure, stronger market access, and real climate resilience. Ang mahalaga, hindi matatapos sa mga plano ang trabaho,” he stated.
“It will recommend specific laws, budget priorities, (and) institutional reforms — and report regularly to Congress on what must be done,” he added.
The senator, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform and is a champion of rural development, assured that the AGRICOM will put farmers, fisherfolk, consumers, indigenous communities, agribusiness practitioners, and other beneficiaries at the center of agri reforms.