Farmers decry hatchet job on DA secretary

Leaders of some of the country’s largest farmer organizations have expressed alarm over an apparent well-orchestrated black propaganda campaign against Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr., saying the smear job "is unfair to the entire farming sector".

The alleged black propaganda campaign followed a recent survey by the influential Makati Business Club (MBC) which showed that the Department of Agriculture (DA) under Lorenzo’s leadership was ranked among the best performing agencies in the country. The survey also showed that business leaders want Lorenzo retained in President Arroyo’s Cabinet.

The farmer leaders decried reports that "white papers" are being circulated at the DA and in media circles attacking Lorenzo’s reported achievements in the agriculture sector during the last two years of President Arroyo’s first term. The leaders earlier cited the unprecedented harvest levels in the country’s rice and corn farms, and the expected record-breaking grains harvest this year.

Butch Umengan, president of the Mindanao Association of Cooperatives (MAISCOFA), branded the anti-Lorenzo smear campaign as "an affront against the entire farming sector because the achievements being attacked are also the result of our labor".

He urged groups behind the smear campaign "to launch instead a positive campaign to further improve agriculture in the country that will overshadow Lorenzo’s achievements". If anyone is able to surpass the gains of the sector under Secretary Lorenzo, that will be to the country’s advantage and we will all recognize that, Umengan said.

Meanwhile, Ibarra Malonzo, president of the 30,000-strong Kasangyahan Foundation, Inc. said the reported smear campaign "is futile and will only serve to strengthen the farming sector’s trust in Lorenzo’s leadership".

"We know the real score in agriculture," Malonzo said. He also warned that the ongoing smear campaign "could only harm the entire sector and does not in any way help better the lives of farmers". He urged Lorenzo’s detractors to "propose and promote instead farming methods, technologies and seed varieties better than what the Secretary has put in place". Intrigues is one thing farmers have no use for, he underscored.

Manuel Ramos, president of the Confederation of Irrigators of the Upland Pampanga River Irrigation System, also called on the perpetrators of the black propaganda campaign "to spare the farming sector from this useless activity".