By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
The “Mahiya naman kayo” saga spun by no less than the Philippine President during his July, 2025 SONA, is turning out to be creating some hopes for better situations.
It turned heads, allowed steaming sentiments to come out, and exposed some web of lies. It also revealed the kind of lawmakers and other politicians that we have willingly or blindly installed. That many of them are not actually looking to defend the welfare of the people that they have promised to accomplish.
Many of course suspect the motive of the president in his corruption crusade. And up to the moment, they are trying to sling him with whatever they could use as a weapon-truth or lie.
Year in, year out, a list of the most corrupt government agencies had been published by the main stream media. Corruption is as clear as the sun rising in the east. No Philippine president dared to touch the hornet’s nest except PBBM, considered “weak” by his detractors.
There is much criticisms in his actions such as slowness of the investigation processes, wanting to have instant results while they actually admit that the problem is systemic.
They forgot or conveniently refuse to understand that the problem is already there decades and decades ago. Certainly it can not be resolved overnight. It is highly possible that there will be guilty parties that could be “overlooked” in the investigations. But to ask the President to resign due to the current corruption fiasco is like saying that the present fraudulence is because of him, which is not. It is tantamount to pronouncing, “let us steal some more”.
What is certain in my own estimation, is that many people are now emboldened to contribute something for the elimination of the systemic malady. This is very important. Let’s just hope that this should lead to the actual involvement of concerned citizens in fighting corruption on a sustained and bold manner. With concomitant legal protection.
I thought that the unfolding saga of corruption will sidetrack other important matters affecting other sectors of governance. Not totally correct!
In the agriculture sector, some things are silently moving. Last October, 25, 2025, PBBM signed Executive Order 101 Directing the full implementation of R.A. 11321 or the Sagip Saka Act which was enacted in early 2019, but never implemented as envisioned for lack of the implementing rules and regulations. It took all of 6 years to come out with the relevant and approved IRR! What a waste of time.
R.A.11321 established the Farmers and Fisherfolk Enterprise Program for purposes of providing various forms of assistance to farmers and fisherfolk to reach their full potential, increase their income, and improve their quality of life;
It mandates national and local government agencies to directly purchase agricultural and fishery products from accredited farmers and fisherfolk cooperatives and enterprises (FFCEs), provided that said agricultural and fishery products are necessary in the performance of their respective mandates;
The said R.A. also directs all national government agencies (NGAs) and instrumentalities, including government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) and state universities and colleges (SUCs), and local government units (LGUs) to fully implement RA No. 11321.
The noble aims of R.A. 11321 are so good on paper. Will they materialize with the E.O. 101? The Order explicitly set at least 7 general terms for the SUCs, LGUs, GOCCs and other concerned national agencies to realign their programs, activities, and projects (PAPs) in support of attaining the goals indicated in the 6-year-old law. A tall order really.
Without yet the implementation of the R.A. 11321, prices of rice in the most recent past, plummeted to PhP 10-12/kg, way below the production cost of PhP18-19/kg. This is unacceptable. The question remains, will E.O.101 provide a satisfactory solution? If it could be done for rice, then maybe it could be done to other crops as well.**
