Establishment of National Research, Development and Extension Center for Banana pushed

A lawmaker has proposed the creation of a research and development facility that would enable the banana industry to cope with global standards for productivity and food safety without sacrificing people's health and the environment.

Hon. Raymond Democrito C. MendozaRep. Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza (Party-list, TUCP) filed House Bill 5221 that seeks to maximize the great potential of the export banana industry in providing huge opportunities for some 30,000 agrarian reform beneficiaries, particularly in Mindanao.

In filing the bill, Mendoza said the industry's global competitiveness must be strengthened with the assistance of the government in the area of research and development.

"This is what the small growers need most. Funds must be allotted for the research and development programs of the industry. A National Research, Development and Extension Center for Banana (NRDECB) could be created to assist the industry for more advanced and scientific farm operations in such areas such as land preparation, plant breeding, planting, crop-protection, harvesting and processing," Mendoza said.

Mendoza said a banana research institute is necessary in addressing banana pests and diseases that threaten the viability of Philippine bananas and could cripple both the small growers and corporate farms.

"We feel an urgent need for research and development facilities, scientific and environment-friendly interventions," Mendoza stressed.

According to Mendoza, the most promising agriculture-based industry that has a great potential to boost rural development, where poverty rate is high, is the export banana industry.

Mendoza said since its inception 44 years ago, and up until now, the Philippine export banana industry continues to provide livelihood to 320,000 workers and their families. The industry pays and average of P30 billion per year for workers' salaries and wages excluding benefits.

He added that because of the banana industry, the peace and order situation in Mindanao has improved and better governance became possible where people's livelihood is sustainable.

Mendoza said presently, the export banana industry is the country's second biggest dollar-earning agricultural enterprise next to the coconut industry, which uses 4.5 million hectares. The industry's average foreign exchange earnings annually is US$720 million.

"Needless to say, the industry has become a potent instrument of development and empowerment for almost two million residents of Mindanao who depend on it. They were able to improve the quality of their lives with the help of the industry. Truly, the export banana industry is a great blessing to many people in Mindanao," Mendoza said.

Under the measure, the Center shall be based in the University of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) in Davao City. It is tasked to undertake basic and strategic research for developing technologies to enhance the productivity and utilization of banana and educate and train all stakeholders of the banana industry.

The Center is also mandated to serve as national repository of germplasm and information related to banana and plantain and also disseminate the knowledge for production and productivity, provide leadership and coordinate the network research for generating location of specific varieties, production and postharvest technologies and for solving specific constraints in banana production and collaborate with relevant national and international agencies in achieving these objectives.

Further, the Center is specifically tasked to develop improved cultivars through traditional and biotechnological methods, productive, high yielding, good quality varieties of banana and develop efficient, economic and productive banana production technologies.

The bill provides that the Center shall be headed by an Executive Director who should be responsible for the planning, implementation and supervision of the Center's program of activities. An Advisory Board is directed to review annually the plans and programs of the Center.

The amount of P300, 000,000 is appropriated from the funds of the National Treasury necessary to maintain the operations of the Center. - Lorelei V. Castillo, Media Relations Service-PRIB

‘Tax the rich instead of raising MRT fares’

THE labor coalition Nagkaisa! on Friday demanded that the government take away the subsidies and tax perks from the rich, such as the P5.2-billion subsidy for the power industry and five to seven-year tax holidays for local and foreign corporations, if it wants to save P2 billion in subsidies by imposing fare increases in the MRT and LRT.

Partido Manggagawa spokesman Wilson Fortaleza said removing the P7-billion to P10-billion annual train subsidy to free up money amounting to P2 billion for other social services was a fallacious argument, saying the poor, who are entitled to government subsidy in varying degrees, should not, by class or geographical location, be pitted against each other.

"This is comparable to the fact that businesses across all industry also enjoy billions of pesos of subsidy in the form of tax holidays, financial assistance, free repatriation as well as import and export privileges," said Fortaleza whose PM belongs to Nagkaisa! coalition.

He said the power industry, the most lucrative business in the country today, received a total of P5.2 billion in subsidy in 2012 based on the 2012 Census of Philippine Business and Industry.

He also cited the seven-year tax holiday granted a Thai-owned firm for putting up a P2- billion hogs and poultry business in the country, prompting local producers and growers to complain that the domestic hogs and poultry industry was being killed by big foreign corporations.

Fortaleza reiterated his group's position that it is more productive to provide an annual subsidy to the estimated 500 million rides of blue-collar workers and students who use the trains regularly than the luxurious lifestyles of 500 public officials.

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and the commuters' groups RILES and TREN are set to question the MRT-LRT fare hike on Jan. 5, a day after the rate increase is enforced by the government.

"We will question the basis for the increase, the authority of the agencies who approved the hike and the process by which the increase was upheld," Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said.

He exhorted the public to support their initiative especially in seeking a temporary restraining order and massive street protests.

"We call on commuters to support this initiative by joining the various protest actions leading up to Jan. 5 and beyond. It is callous on the part of the regime to announce the hike during the holidays and implement it during the visit of the Pope. This period of joy and hope is dampened by the prospect of greater burdens on the poor," Reyes said.

"For that, let the world see the heartless, anti-people government that we have. And let the world know that the Filipino people are resisting its unjust impositions."

Nagkaisa!, for its part, likewise bewailed the huge revenue losses coming from tax evasion and smuggling, saying the failure to address this age-old problem had created a "pass-on" culture in public policy.

"This is the reason why the burden shifted heavily to indirect taxes like Value Added Tax and taxes withheld from wage earners.  At the same time, smuggling creates abundance of cheap imported goods at the detriment of local producers. And now the removal of subsidies," Fortaleza said.

He said smuggled goods had no local labor components, which was both a revenue and job loss to Filipinos.

He said PM supported the view of Senator Allan Peter Cayetano that unless trillions of pesos of lost revenue due to smuggling, tax evasion and official corruption was plugged, the removal of MRT/LRT subsidy would be painfully and socially unjust.

"Subsidy is a good social policy.  It is a right, an entitlement of poor people while corruption and fraud are privileges enjoyed by the rich and powerful.  By removing the subsidy, the government is renouncing a good policy," Fortaleza said.

Quoting the World Bank, Cayetano said for every P1 collected by the government, P2 remained uncollected. This was estimated to be between P2 to P4 trillion of lost revenue or bigger than the recently approved budget of P2.6 trillion.

Cayetano said he would take up this issue next year amid the plan by the government to remove the subsidy to the metro rail system. The plan would double the MRT and LRT fares beginning Jan. 4.

Fortaleza said the coalition Nagkaisa! will be meeting next week to draw up plans against the impending fare hike. -  By Christine F. Herrera / Manila Standard Today

Groups to plan protest actions vs train fare hike

MANILA, Philippines - Various labor and people's organizations will launch protest actions against the impending Metro Rail Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) fares increase next year.

Josua Mata, secretary general of Sentro ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa (Sentro) and one of the convenors of labor alliance Nagkaisa, said the fare hike is "anti-labor."

"The timing is not just bad. The policy itself is very bad, it's anti-labor," Mata said.

He said labor groups under Nagkaisa will meet after Christmas to come up with protest plans against the fare hike.

Mata noted that majority of the city's train riders belong to the working class who are the ones suffering daily from the poorly maintained railway systems.

The Federation of Free Workers (FFW) also scored the scheduled increase while the workers' wages stagnated to the barest minimum.

"We believe pulling money out of a worker's pocket through a fare hike is an incentive to private concessionaires. We will gain nothing from it, not even improved services," FFW president Sonny Matula.

Another Nagkaisa convenor, the Associated Labor Unions-TUCP, hit the fare hike, saying it shows the government's repeated blunders in running public utilities because of over-reliance to private concessionaires.

Meanwhile, Renato Reyes Jr. of the militant group Bayan said they will contest the fare increase at the "soonest possible time."

"The DOTC's (Department of Transportation and Communicatios) treachery prevents oppositors from getting a TRO (temporary restraining order) because of the holiday season. Nonetheless, we will protest and challenge the fare hike," Reyes said.

The government hopes to generate around P2 billion from the fare hike which ranges from 50 percent to 87 percent.

Reyes alleged that the reason for the increase is not to give better service to the train ridership but to assure profit to the private companies.

"The users-pay principle government is invoking basically tells the commuter to fend for himself as no government subsidy is forthcoming. It's simply government abandonment of the taxpayers," he said. - By Dennis Carcamo (philstar.com)

Various groups protest Metro Manila elevated train fare hike

Manila: Various groups are opposing the government’s move to hike fares for Metro Manila’s intracity elevated train service as they accused the Aquino administration of favouring the interests of big business rather than those of commuters.

The “Nagkaisa,” (United) said a move of the Department of Transportation and Communications to allow a substantial increase in fares for the Light Rail Transit Line 1 (LRT) and the Metro Rail Transport (MRT) would hit commuters, especially at a time when they needed the elevated trains to get around the metropolis for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The groups opposing the train fare hike said the rate increase had come at a bad time.

“The rate of every crushing ride in MRT and LRT will be rising at a time rates in other public utility transport are falling because of plummeting prices of fuel oil. The timing is not just bad,” said Josua Mata, secretary general of Sentro ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa (United Workers Centre or Sentro).


On the part of the Associated Labour Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), it said the issue is a matter of confused priorities and an ill-effect of the past and present government’s lack of foresight to invest in vital public infrastructures on its own without reliance from the private sector which has its own business interests to look after.

Quite simply they said, the issue of elevated train fare hikes is indicative of the clashing interests of the private
businesses that own and developed the MRT.

The LRT was started during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos in the early 1980s. It was developed to provide cheap and fast transport to commuters in Metro Manila. To do this, the then government had to socialise the infrastructure, in effect “subsidising” a portion of the fares for every train rider.

The MRT on the other hand, which was developed during the administration of Fidel V. Ramos in the 1990s and started operation during the presidency of Joseph Estrada in 2000 was put up mainly from money from private investors rather than the government as in the case of the LRT.

The two public utility infrastructures were from separate and distinct business models and the current government is now trying to blend these two to provide transport to Metro Manila residents and visitors.

“Again, this is another example of the government leading from the back.The result: Over reliance on a greedy, socially irresponsible private sector concessionaire. We are at the not so tender mercy of a government that does not have regulatory resolve,” said Alan Tanjusay, spokesperson of ALU-TUCP.

The left-wing umbrella Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance or Bayan) said the matter concerning the fare hikes is an issue of public interest over private sector gain. Fare hikes are much of a political as well it is an economic concern in a developing country such as the Philippines.

Renato Reyes, secretary general of Bayan said the train fare hikes are an “insult” to the commuter riders, most of whom are from the working class, who have to bear riding in unsafe trains.

In the case of the MRT, Japanese experts said the train has increased chances of being involved in a disastrous accident as its rails and overall running systems have been poorly maintained.

Last August 14, a train of the MRT overshot its tracks at the Taft station. The accident caused injury to a number of people. Fortunately there were no fatalities. - By Gilbert P. Felongco - Gulf News