Corporatize

Manny Pangilinan (MVP) is onto something that might finally deliver the revolution our agriculture so direly needs.

Last December, MVP-led Metro-Pacific Investment Corporation (MPIC), in a strategic partnership with Israel’s LR Group, acquired a majority stake in ice cream maker Carmen’s Best. The two companies formed Metro Pacific Dairy Farms.

Many thought of this investment as a hobby of sorts – until MPIC indicated it would expand its dairy farms and produce other dairy products.

This month, MPIC acquired a 35 percent stake in Axelum Resources Corporation that makes coconut products. One business column teased that MVP was “going nuts.”

Last Monday, Metro Pacific Agro Ventures (a subsidiary of MPIC) held groundbreaking ceremonies for Metro Pacific Fresh Farms. This P1-billion venture, again in partnership with LR Group, promises to supply the market with 1,200 metric tons of high quality vegetables all year round.

The first farm in San Rafael, Bulacan will feature the country’s largest vegetable greenhouse facility. Using technology developed by the Israelis, the vegetable farm will use 90 percent less water, 90 percent less land and up to 93 percent less fertilizers and pesticides.

In addition to farm technology, the San Rafael facility will use information technology to closely monitor the market and adjust production accordingly. One could imagine that the farm itself will eventually use artificial intelligence to assure optimal conditions for growing its vegetables.

The introduction of corporate discipline and financing will enable capitalization of our farms, resulting in abundant harvests responsive to market demand. This is exactly what our agriculture needs.

Our romanticization of small subsistence farms using primitive farming methods is what brought us to the glaring failure of our agriculture. Subsistence farmers have no capital to introduce technology. They are not keyed to the market – which brings us into cycles of shortages and wastage. The solution does not lie in more farm-to-market roads. The solution lies in corporatizing our farms.

The only parts of our farming that is efficient are those where corporations are able to integrate cultivation and introduce cutting edge technology. These include the contract growing arrangements of corporations such as San Miguel Foods (chicken) and Oishi (cassava) as well as large piggeries such as those owned by tycoon Lucio Tan.

There are hindrances to integrating our agricultural production. Our land reform program prevents farmers from selling or leasing their unproductive family-sized plots. Our farmers are held captive to primitive subsistence production. That undermines our country’s ability to feed itself.

We have to eventually remove these hindrances to enable capitalization of our food production. That will reduce food inflation and ensure more nutritious meals for Filipinos.

Dredging

For months now, a Chinese dredging company has been quarrying sand from rivers in Zambales to be used as landfill for a reclamation project in Manila Bay that is still being contested in the courts. Last week, the National Coast Watch Center (NCWC) described the operation as “illegal.”

The NCWC is the principal inter-agency mechanism for maritime surveillance and coordinated response. It is the operating arm of the National Coast Watch Council. The lead agency here is the Philippine Coast Guard and the Center is attached to the Office of the President through the Office of the Executive Secretary.

A special report was issued by the NCWC after close monitoring of the “suspicious” Chinese dredging operation. The report concluded that the Chinese company was “operating outside their approved areas of operation as against the issued Special Permit by the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA).”

In addition, the report found that the dredging activity was without a clearance from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and had no Environmental Compliance Certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Mines and Geosciences Bureau (DENR-MGB).

Furthermore, there was no memorandum of agreement between the DENR and the dredging company. There was no accreditation and no ore transport permit from the MGB. The Office of the National Security Adviser had not issued any “No Objection Clearance” for the dredging company. On top of it all, there is no formal Notice to Proceed for the reclamation project.

To compound this litany of irregularities, the Chinese dredging vessels were found operating with a false Automatic Identification System (AIS). The system allows Philippine authorities to properly monitor and record their exact movements inside our territorial waters. The vessels routinely turned off their AIS during their dredging operations. This is, after all, the same company that was sanctioned for its role in building the artificial islands Beijing now uses in the South China Sea. The material used to build up these now fortified artificial islands are suspected to have come from our own rivers.

In a word, the entire operation appears to be running on impunity alone.

On Nov. 29, 2022 the NCWC special report was endorsed by Malacañang through Executive Secretary Naealla Aguinaldo to the MARINA for appropriate action. According to one newspaper report, the MARINA has taken action on the matter.

MARINA National Capital Region director Marc Anthony Pascua responded by text message to inquiries made by journalists. He says the agency “already investigated” the vessels in question and “were issued show-cause orders and accordingly penalized.” The actual penalties were not disclosed.

Pascua disclosed that “vessels whose Special Permits have been revoked and have paid the corresponding penalties may nonetheless apply for another permit so long as they are going to comply with the requirements of the relevant MARINA Circular.”

This does not sound very reassuring.