Asian Angle | Marcos misinterprets the cause of the Philippines’ food crisis. It was decentralisation, not weak leadership

Local government units and the Department of Agriculture are locked in a stalemate because of conflicting structures, goals, orientations, and expertise

Re-centralisation isn’t necessarily the answer. Academic partnerships could provide the expertise and local know-how needed to find a way out of the crisis

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People queue for free meals in Manila last month, distributed by Catholic religious order Society of the Divine Word. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:00am, 17 Jul 2022

After issuing a flurry of press releases revealing the new members of his cabinet, newly-elected Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr made a surprise announcement last month when he named himself agriculture secretary.

Though he clarified that he would only take on the role temporarily, the announcement emphasised the gravity of a continuing food crisis in the Philippines that Marcos called “severe”.

While still a candidate campaigning for the top job, Marcos had dangled before millions of hungry Filipinos the prospect of a coming “golden age” of cheap rice at 20 pesos (US$0.36) per kilogram – about half of current prices.

This daring pledge may have helped catapult him to the presidency, but it has also been met by a chorus of doubters, including agriculture officials.

Dr William Dar, who was agriculture secretary under Marcos’ predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, said that “the nearest we can go by now is 27.50 pesos per kilo” while Secretary of Agrarian Reform Conrado Estrella III has warned that current market conditions made it difficult to lower rice prices to 20 pesos per kilogram.

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