Yap outlines priorities at DA - Malaya 10.26.2006

REAPPOINTED Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap yesterday said he wants to be remembered as the man who provided infrastructure and processing facilities that reduced agricultural losses and increased the income of farmers.

He said that while there may have been increases in agricultural production over the years, these have not been felt by farmers due to losses suffered through lack of infrastructure and post-harvest facilities.

"I’m not a farmer but my contribution to Philippine agriculture will be the hard support for infrastructure that will increase yield and lessen wastage," Yap told reporters after he formally accepted the Department of Agriculture (DA) portfolio from outgoing Secretary Domingo Panganiban on Wednesday.

Yap said the DA’s focus would be in strategic placement of processing, transportation and storage facilities because "farmers already know" about the aspects of production and yield.

"It’s infrastructure and processing that we have to concentrate on. It’s not a question of yield," he said.

Yap said the measure of a successful agriculture secretary is not in increased productivity alone but on how he makes the different stakeholders benefit from the DA’s programs and how he is able to stabilize the prices of agricultural goods.

He said there is a need to tie up production with markets nationwide. "If you have these chains all over the Philippines, the private sector will invest," he said.

Yap said there should also be coordination with local government units. He said he "will put more money in LGUs that are investing in agriculture."

Yap’s return to the DA was criticized, particularly by farmers’ groups which questioned both his capability and integrity. But he found an ally in opposition Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile who described him as someone who will bring back "delicadeza" to the Cabinet.
Yap served as agriculture secretary from July 2004 up to June 30 2005, when he resigned after the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) accused him and his father of tax evasion over the purchase of a lot in Pasig.

The BIR later dropped the charges, paving the way for his appointment as presidential adviser on job creation in December 2005.

Enrile, a senior member of the bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA), vowed to back Yap when his appointment comes before the body. The senator said Yap’s sense of propriety showed in his response to the tax evasion charge.

"That act shows that Secretary Yap possesses a sense of ‘delicadeza’, which is rarely found in public officials nowadays," Enrile said. "At the very least, Yap deserves a chance to prove his worth once again as head of the Department of Agriculture."

Enrile said he especially liked Yap’s announcement that he will put a stop to the practice of massive public spending on fertilizer subsidies and farm inputs, which have been widely criticized as a source of corruption in the last elections.

At the same time, he challenged Yap to "demolish cartels and monopolies in the agricultural sector which only serve vested interest groups to the detriment of the farmers and the consuming public."

The farmers’ group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) accused Yap of being President Arroyo’s replacement for former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante who was found guilty by a Senate inquiry of masterminding the diversion of P728 million in fertilizer funds to Arroyo’s 2004 campaign kitty.

Yap, who was once Arroyo’s student at the Ateneo de Manila University, asked the KMP to a dialogue the other day but the group said they would need to make sure first that the dialogue would not be used by Yap to make himself look good ("pagpapapogi") and that the talking points should be left to their group to decide to ensure that the issues are clarified. - Reinir Padua and Dennis Gadil