Angara endorsed by UBRA

The 500,000 strong United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA) yesterday endorsed the senatorial candidacy of former Agriculture Secretary Edgardo J. Angara for his efforts to protect the industry from reckless importation and dumped chicken parts and his fight for Philippine agricultural interests.

Angara, one of the leading candidates of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino – Puwersa ng Masa, was also cited by UBRA for his low key but intense work to promote the agriculture sector.

The UBRA said that Angara saved the poultry industry from certain collapse when he restricted the import surges of cheap chicken leg quarters in 1999 and 2000.

The prompt action enabled the poultry industry to survive the import surges, according to UBRA.

"When politicking without action has become a way of life, Angara fought for an industry ignored for so many years by politicians and government officers," the UBRA offices led by president and chairman Gregorio A. San Diego, said.

San Diego said that the "hard work, sincerity and integrity" of Angara had largely benefited the farming sector.

Industry leaders had cited Angara’s fight for Philippine agricultural interests, including the tough bargaining with Australia for the entry of world-class fruits into the restricted Australian market.

Australia, on Angara’s initiative, is now conducting a risk analysis of Philippine bananas and pineapples, preliminary to the acceptance of the two premier Philippine exports into Canberra.

The Australian action ended almost a decade of inaction on the Philippine government request to ease the restrictions on Philippine fruits to Canberra.

Angara also worked on several fronts to push Philippine exports and regulate dumping and reckless agricultural importation.

He used his considerable political stature to present the ease of developing countries which have been fighting a lonely battle to end the trade and tariff distortions of developed countries in agricultural trade.

He also negotiated with China for a preferential treatment of Philippine agricultural exports.

Angara also carried out prompt action to prevent the entry of contaminated meat and animal products into the country. Last November, he ordered the ban on the entry of beef and by-products from Taipei, following the reported outbreak of the mad-cow disease there.

Under Angara’s stewardship, the agriculture from its mediocre performance. From a negative 6.6 growth rate in 1998, the agriculture sector posted a 6.3 growth rate in 1999 and a 3.4 growth rate last year.

Angara has been hailed as the "father of agricultural modernization."