Sen. Angara scores Palace on Agri Dept's 2011 budget cut

A senator on Sunday criticized the Aquino administration for cutting the 2011 proposed budget of the Agriculture Department, saying it would lead to a “decline" in agricultural production. “The budget for the country’s agriculture should be prioritized very strictly and rigidly because we see practical translations where these funds go," said Sen. Edgardo Angara in an interview on radio dzBB. Angara said the “indiscriminate cut" of the budget could mean that the government may not be able to construct farm-to-market access roads and provide post-harvest facilities such as palay driers. “These are among the means that would boost agricultural production in the country," the senator said in Pilipino. The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had slashed to P37.7 billion the P58 billion budget requested by the Agriculture Department. The administration decided to give the Department of Social Welfare and Development a 123-percent budget increase to P34.3 billion in support of the conditional cash-transfer (CCT) program for poor Filipinos. In general, the budget for 2011 “does not address the nation’s problem on poverty and unemployment," Angara said. “We're now starting a dole-out and welfare-oriented society," Angara said. “Do we need to begin a welfare state or stick to our democratic society?" Angara claimed that the Philippines cannot sustain and afford a society of dole-outs. “The general orientation of the budget does not point at productivity." The senator said that the government’s CCT program or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program wouldn’t be productive since “the Philippines is a developing country. Mahirap lang ang bansa natin (Ours is a poor country)," he said. Under the program, selected Filipino families would stand to gain P1,400 in monthly cash assistance. “Hindi malinaw ang beneficiaries nito. Sino ang magmo-monitor sa kanila? Malaki rin ang logistical problem, pati na rin absorption capacity ng program," (It’s not clear who the beneficiaries are. Who will monitor them? The logistical problem is also big, as well as the program’s absorption capacity),he pointed out. In the 2010 budget appropriations, former President and now Pampanga Second District Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo approved P41.17 billion for the Agriculture Department. Angara, who heads the Senate committee on education, arts, and culture, said that the Science and Technology Department should also be given ample budget, adding that the department is a “wealth-creation field." Research and development should be bolstered as this gives the country opportunities to develop new technologies and inventions, he added. —JE/VS, GMANews.TV