Senator Francis “Kiko” N. Pangilinan on Friday, Nov. 5 said more jobs would be generated if government focused on local agriculture, and not simply on importation.

“Kung mas malaki ang budget at suporta ng gobyerno sa agriculture, imbes na sa pag-import lang ng pagkain, mas marami ang mag-i-invest at magtra-trabaho sa agrikultura (If agriculture receives more government budget and support, instead of only importing food, more will invest and work in agriculture),” he said.

Pangilinan, former food security adviser during the Noynoy Aquino administration, stressed this as the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported an increase in the number of unemployed Filipinos.

“Dapat ding sugpuin ang smuggling dahil pinapatay nito ang kasalukuyang kabuhayan ng ating mga magsasaka at mangingisda (Smuggling should also be checked because it kills the existing livelihood of our farmers and fishers),” he added.

Pangilinan said urgent action is needed to assist farmers and fishers, considered as the country's food security front-liners. He rued that the Bayanihan funds were slow to reach them, if the funds reached them at all.

In a report on the Department of Agriculture's (DA’s) fund utilization in 2020, the Commission on Audit (COA) said that P9.8 billion of the agency's P59.81 billion in cash allocation was not used and reverted to the Bureau of Treasury (BTr). Another P4.55 billion was not released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

"Kung pinagkait natin itong ayuda sa mga magsasaka, na isa sa pinakamahirap ng sektor ng bansa, parang iniwan na rin natin sila sa gitna ng krisis (Depriving our farmers, who are among our poorest sectors, of this badly needed aid is like abandoning them in the middle of a crisis)," Pangilinan said.

He said the rising unemployment rate in the country badly hit workers in the agriculture sector.

The PSA on November 4 reported that the number of unemployed Filipinos swelled to 4.3 million last September, translating to an 8.9 percent unemployment rate.

Pangilinan lamented that the billions of pesos allotted to various agencies as part of the Bayanihan 1 and 2 pandemic response appeared to have made little impact on Filipino workers, who remained without source of income.

At least 862,000 job cuts were recorded in the agriculture sector, partly due to bad weather and the end of harvest season.

"Hindi tayo makakabangon kung iiwan natin ang kritikal na sektor na ito (We cannot speak of economic recovery if a critical sector is left behind)," Pangilinan said.