Crisis in PH Agriculture

February 21, 2019

Three things beyond rice tariffication

February 19, 2019

President Duterte has signed the Rice Tariffication Bill into law, which promises to reform Philippine agriculture. But until the government genuinely completes land reform and gives sufficient and substantial support to agriculture, the country’s staple and Filipino farmers remain at risk. The law removes quantitative restrictions or limits to rice importation. Any amount of rice […]

The 2019 Budget: War and Infrastructure Over Social Services, Agriculture and Industry

January 26, 2019

The bicameral conference committee will begin deliberations on the 2019 national budget next week. These infographics show how bigger allocations for war and infrastructure are prioritized over allocations for social services, agriculture and industry in three proposed versions of the 2019 national budget. These are the Department of Budget and Management’s Budget of Expenditures and […]

Govt anti-inflation measures inadequate and anti-agriculture

October 2, 2018

Research group IBON said that the Duterte administration’s anti-inflation measures are reckless stop-gap measures that will ironically harm domestic agriculture, displace farmers and fisherfolk, and worsen food insecurity. The group also said that the government should use its vast authority to take much more decisive steps to reduce inflation. President Duterte issued Administrative Order (AO) […]

295,000 jobs lost since Duterte assumed office, IBON maintains

September 13, 2018

Research group IBON stood by its estimates that close to 300,000 jobs were lost since the start of the Duterte administration, that has been downplaying the fact. The group stressed this after Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) honorary chair Sergio Ortiz-Luis said that IBON’s description of jobs lost is “deceiving”. Ortiz-Luis reportedly said that […]

300k jobs lost under Duterte

September 12, 2018

Job creation in the rest of the economy was not enough to compensate for the huge job losses especially in agriculture. There were gross job losses of 2.2 million between July 2016 and July 2018 but only 1.9 million in gross job creation, hence the 295,000 drop in the number of employed. Read more: https://www.ibon.org/2018/09/jobs-crisis-getting-worse-under-duterte-govt-ibon/

6.4% inflation hits poorest Filipinos the most

September 8, 2018

Long-term solution is to strengthen domestic agriculture and Filipino industry to provide cheaper food, goods and services in the domestic market, lessen imports, and lower pressure on the peso to depreciate. Reverse the privatization or commercialization of water, power, education and health that make these services more expensive for profit. These steps the Duterte administration’s […]

Meat and fish tariffs, a temporary fix

August 7, 2018

Ultimately, agricultural imports could worsen the situation by displacing local producers and increasing our import bill.

Agri job losses worsen: Job destruction continues under neolib Dutertenomics–IBON

December 17, 2017

Research group IBON said that recently-released employment figures show that the jobs crisis is worsening under the Duterte administration’s neoliberal agenda, despite reported fast economic growth. The group said, there were jobs lost and an increase in the number of unemployed, primarily due to the over one million job losses in agriculture. These latest figures […]