Sen. Imee Marcos on Thursday accused Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III of misleading President Rodrigo Duterte on the Masagana 99 rice production and credit scheme.
Marcos, in a press release, said the Masagana 99 program, which provided credit subsidies to farmers who used a miracle rice variety in the 1970s, was able to turn the Philippines into a rice exporter.
“Shame on you, Secretary Dominguez, give the Filipino farmer some credit! When supported by sound government policy and defended against rampant importation, we can feed ourselves. Give the Filipino farmer a chance!” Marcos said.
READ: Finance chief fact-checks Imee, says Marcos’ Masagana 99 bankrupted 800 banks
The press release described Dominguez as having “lost his cool” during a Senate committee of the whole hearing Wednesday, when he said he had to clean up the mess created by the Marcos program when he was agriculture secretary during the Aquino administration from 1987 to 1989.
Marcos said she asked Dominguez why large cash infusions were being made to Land Bank of the Philippines, the Development Bank of the Philippines, and Philguarantee instead of giving direct assistance to marginalized sectors through a network of commercial, rural, and cooperative banks similar to that in Masagana 99.
“Even President Duterte already warned Land Bank during his last State of the Nation address, since they were only lending to big business at the expense of farmers, who are supposed to be the primary customers,” Marcos said.
Marcos said that contrary to Dominguez’s claim, the Philippines did export rice to neighboring countries when farmers under Masagana 99 produced a surplus of some 89,000 metric tons in 1977 to 1978. She quoted Emil Javier, an agronomist and former president of the University of the Philippines.
The Philippine Rice Research Institute also reported that rice exportation in 2013 was only the second time since Masagana 99 was launched by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the lawmaker said.
“President Duterte was pushing for a revival of Masagana 99 early on in his administration, but maybe Dominguez misled his best friend too,” Senator Marcos said. (PressONE.ph)