Long Ago, PH President GMA Did Champion The Poor – Why Not President BBM Today Championing The Poor Farmers Beyond Pledging P20/kg Rice?

PH history revisited: I am a Filipino. In 2007, the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) under Director General William Dar (yes, the former PH Secretary of Agriculture), published my book titled “Team ICRISAT Champions The Poor” (136 big pages). My book said something about my President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) visiting India. That trip was Chapter 3: “GMA’s Indian Summer. Writing The Philippine Story (Revised Edition).”

I wrote:

GMA has been busy writing the next Philippine Story; her detractors have been busy denigrating the size of her frame, using the wrong framework sizing up her failures, never minding her successes. I admire their tenacity, or shall I say their character? Character, I like to say, is stubbornness bordering on stupidity.

Where were they when GMA was in a State Visit recently [2007] and established “a long-term and mutually beneficial trade relationship for import and export of various products” (gmanews.tv) between India and the Philippines? Thank God they did not devise a Senate inquiry in aid of legislation. Well, I don’t hesitate to say the Indians have more faith in the Philippines than many of the Filipinos who keep loudly professing their love of country.

On his part, President Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr made a 3-day state visit to Indonesia early this September (Sebastian Strangio, 07 Sept 2022, The Diplomat, thediplomat.com). BBM and Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo signed “a defense and security cooperation agreement.”

BBM did not explore economics, unlike GMA 15 years earlier. Why not?

At any rate, BBM did promise this July, Christia Marie Ramos says: “Bongbong Marcos Admin Aims To Cut Poverty Rate To 9% By End Of Term – DOF Chief” (06 July 2022, Inquirer, newsinfo.inquirer.net):

The new administration is aiming to reduce the country’s poverty rate to nine percent by the end of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s term in 2028. Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Benjamin Diokno disclosed this Wednesday that such a goal is part of his agency’s medium-term fiscal consolidation framework that was presented during their first Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Good. But not good enough! I want to hear about how BBM and his cabinet, especially the Department of Agriculture (DA) and its numerous attached agencies – how Farmer Poverty is going to be solved.

For the sake of Management, BBM’s promise of a P20/kg rice is a Mission – now, where is that Vision that calls for that Mission?
(“Vision” from kenccid.org)

My favorite “Missionary” is one who showed he was a “Visionary” some 22 years ago. He referred to himself as a “Servant Leader” – that is, his servanthood (service) came first before leadership, or his leadership was for the purpose of servanthood. When William Dar. was the Director General of ICRISAT (based in India) 2000-2014, and when he was PH Secretary of Agriculture 2019-2022 – The ICRISAT Vision/Mission was “Science with a human face.”

For BBM for Agriculture, for the poor farmers, why not this Vision/Mission: “Science with a farmer’s face”? Asking as a friend!@517