Friday, December 22, 2006 Parallel Asean confab snubbed; farmers hit agri exec By Victor L. Camion
FARMERS in Negros Oriental belonging to Alyansa Agrikultura expressed dismay against the top official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) for non-appearance in the scheduled parallel conference.
Eugene Quirante, regional liaison officer of the farmers' group Sentro Saka Inc, stressed that Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap decried the conference held in Cebu over the weekend.
The Alyansa Agrikultura and Agri-Fisheries Task Force sponsored a National Stakeholders Asean Conference.
Alyansa Agrikultura is composed of 42 national and local federations and organizations representing all major sectors of agriculture and fisheries.
"This is plain and simple arrogance," said Quirante adding, "How can agriculture stakeholders expect Asean to take them seriously when our own agriculture secretary refuses to even meet with them?"
Quirante stressed that the conference was convened to provide ordinary agricultural stakeholders with a venue to thresh out the issues surrounding Asean's planned regional integration and how it will affect agriculture.
Yap by not showing up, Quirante said, was sending the message that the views and concerns of small agricultural producers have no bearing on the whole Asean discourse.
Alyansa Agrikultura leaders revealed that they were forced to hold the parallel conference out of frustration with the lack of participation, consultation and transparency in Asean decision-making, particularly on agriculture matters.
Quirante said the Alyansa members are worried at the current direction Asean is taking, which shows a clear bias for economic integration, based on a misguided uniform policy of cutting tariffs without considering its impact on peoples' livelihood, food security, and farm development as opposed to a holistic development of a community of people cooperating together within the region.
"We were hoping to at least engage our government so that it can more genuinely represent our interests in Asean," Quirante said adding, "Secretary Yap has made it clear by his actions that even the DA is not interested in representing the ordinary farmers and fisherfolk."
