LEADERSHIP REVIEW | Analyst points out ‘good, bad, ugly’ in Marcos’ first year as president

July 3, 2023 , 02:20 PM

By Beatrice Puente

(July 3, 2023) – President Bongbong Marcos Jr. was slow in improving the state of agriculture despite serving as concurrent secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA), a market analyst said on Monday, describing this as one of the flaws of the administration during its first year in office.

Jonathan Ravelas acknowledged the hiring of a competent economic team as one of the “good things” about Marcos. But when it comes to “the bad and the ugly,” he respectively mentioned the concentration on the process of the Maharlika Investment Fund and the present status of the agriculture sector.

He noted that having Marcos also lead the DA can have its advantages but he pointed out that this must be felt on the ground. Still, he acknowledged that agriculture is a “work in progress.”

“From the grassroots level, ‘di pa natin nakikita ang actual environment that’s needed, especially now that we’ve seen the devolution to local governments. This makes it harder to ensure that the plans of the national government are well-echoed in the plans of the local government,” said Ravelas on One News Now.

Citing the so-called “bibingka strategy,” Ravelas stressed that the policies pushed at the national level must be met with the same level of vigor at the local level for the actual implementation of much-needed programs.

“Kailangan talaga cohesive ang strategy in setting the tone that we want to achieve. That means, there is food on the table, we want to make sure that farm-to-table strategies are much shorter, and being able to have a supply chain that will be able to deliver to other parts of the country,” added Ravelas.

Last month, Marcos reiterated his plan to stay on as DA chief until proper systems are in place to ensure food security, shutting down calls from critics and some lawmakers for him to step down from the post. He also agreed with the “incomplete” grade that a political analyst gave him for his first year as president and DA secretary.

Marcos made a bold statement during the campaign that he will bring down the retail cost of rice to P20 per kilo. But based on the price monitoring last June 30, regular milled rice was still at P35 to P42 per kilo.

Despite the criticisms, Marcos maintained his promise to eradicate hunger by the end of his term.

“We will repay your love with our sweat that will not run out until the work is done, until we can say that no Filipino is hungry,” said Marcos during a speech in Davao del Sur last Saturday.

As the second year of the administration begins, Ravelas said one of the major challenges is sustaining growth, setting his forecast growth at 6%. He added that inflation must be monitored.

“We need to really work on the agriculture sector to be able to ensure that we try to bring down inflation permanently,” said Ravelas.

(PM)

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