DA Skirts National Policy on Free Movement of Food

Click the link for a copy of the Implementation Procedure.

The DA has to reexamine its Implementation Procedure for Food Lane Accreditation that its office, through its undersecretary for operations, Engr. Ariel T. Cayanan, issued on March 16, 2020. 

Strangely, the issuance prescribes that the validity of the food lane accreditation shall be two (2) years. This gives the impression that the national government believes that this crisis is going to last two years. While we don’t dismiss the possibility of a protracted battle with COVID-19, given that even the much advanced economies like Italy and Spain struggle to rein in its spread, one month is way shorter than two years. Moreover, it has to be made in an official pronouncement by President Duterte, or through his alter ego, the secretary of the Department of Health, Franciso Duque III, then eventually reduced to a policy through the IATF.

But it’s not the case here. This two-year period just came out of thin air. If this accreditation will remain valid after the community quarantine will have been lifted, say, as it stands now, on April 13, 2020, then the grantee will continue to enjoy the privileges under it even after the emergency that provided the basis for its issuance has passed. This reeks of anomaly, for no one would extend privileges beyond what is intended, for nothing.

In fact, this is not the only problem. The more sinister part of this issuance, which I wrote about in yesterday’s article, is that it imposes requirements that have no basis, if we consider the underlying concerns that motivated the creation of this food lane. 

Up to now, and until this ill-advised issuance is implemented, the only change that has been introduced in how deliveries of foods and their raw materials are handled is that checkpoint personnel must determine that the delivery content is, indeed, foods, or their raw materials accompanied by an inventory, or if delivery has already been made, a delivery receipt; that checkpoint personnel must determine whether the number of delivery crew or contingent is at its leanest, or just enough to carry out the task; and most importantly, that checkpoint personnel must determine that the delivery crew or contingent pass the thermal scan, to ensure that we don’t allow suspected cases to be moving around. 

Bearing in mind that the main objective of the quarantine is to restrict or limit the movement of people, based on scientific finding that COVID-19 transmits through droplets, or people’s close contact.  The only impetus for establishing this green lane is the observation that delivery vehicles containing foods and goods have stalled in checkpoints, as they co-mingle with the rest of queuing vehicles. Thus, consistent with the national policy, which the national government, through its national officials including the president, have pronounced ad nauseam, that is, movement of foods, and goods, and cargoes in general, must remain unhampered and unimpeded, all the government needs to do is create a special checkpoint lane for foods, and their raw materials—precisely this food lane, without the unreasonably onerous requirements.

This “unhampered movement” policy is borne out of plain common sense. The government knows that if it chokes the flow of foods or their raw materials, food shortage and price spikes will ensue, bringing in chaos, and exacerbating our predicament.

Instead, the DA issued a much-detached issuance, fashioned as an implementation procedure, imposing a whole gamut of requirements, which has nothing to do with restricting or limiting the movement of people. In what seems to be a surreptitiously crafted procedure, the DA, in this wicked issuance, requires that applicants, to be eligible, have to be registered with DTI, SEC, CDA, or DOLE; that an applicant must have a valid business permit; that an applicant present its delivery vehicle’s CR/OR; that an applicant must have no complaint filed against it. 

How much of the country’s farmers are registered with SEC, DTI, CDA, or DOLE, or have business permits, or have their own vehicles? And what has a complaint against an applicant to do with its ability to deliver foods? This subversive policy will only exclude the subsistence farmers, those in Benguet and Nueva Ecija, among others, whom the government have been publicly promising to help sell their products directly to their market here in Metro Manila, in favor of the bigger middlemen, who are likely to be the ones able to satisfy the DA accreditation requirements. This will make the government’s promise of levelling the playing field, nothing more than just another lip service. 

Let us take note that all these requirements did not exist before COVID-19, so under what basis do these exist now, where the national policy, spawned by the need to respond to the crisis, is to keep the movement of goods unhampered and unimpeded—keep it the way it was before the crisis? Obviously, no basis exists. Why it is there, is something only the DA can explain.

The irony of it all is that behind this audacity, the DA has no authority to demand any of the requirements it has imposed on the prospective applicants, as these are out of its jurisdiction. 

The DA needs reminding that even overzeal, if it be the motivation, cannot be made an excuse for a subordinate department to disobey a superior order, or override a national policy, consequently undermining the office of the president. Overzeal cannot make it immune from censure, even prosecution. The DA, no matter how noble its intention,  cannot supplant its own wisdom over that of the nation’s, through the IATF, and ultimately the office of the president. 

The President must call the DA out on this sneaky issuance, and order it to rewrite its procedure in a way that conforms with the national policy.

Department of Agriculture Muddles "Unhampered Movement of Goods" Policy

DA Implementation Procedure Related to Food Lane Accreditation

Government is so used to “red tape,” or complicating matters that it can’t spare an extreme emergency situation. The official national policy on food, and goods, as laid out in the “Community Quarantine over the Entire Luzon and further Guidelines for the Management of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation” issued by ES Salvador C. Medialdea, by order of the president, on  March 16, 2019, is categorically to allow their (foods and goods, or cargoes) unhampered movement and flow: “The movement of cargoes within, to and from the entire Luzon shall be unhampered. For this purpose, guidelines for the accompanying crew or personnel of transiting cargoes shall be formulated by the Department of Transportation.”

It is clear that the purpose of the community quarantine, aimed at containing the contact-transmitted COVID-19, is to limit the movement of people, not goods. 

The DA, however, in its Implementation Procedure, has imposed restrictive requirements not found in, or that even contradicts, the president’s directive—requirements that have nothing to do with restricting the movement of people.

For instance, first, it requires that applicants must be registered with DTI, SEC, CDA, or DOLE. Majority of farmers are not registered with any of the above. While it is a worthy policy direction to have the farmers register with at least one of the above, this is not an occasion to pursue this direction, and it is not within the jurisdiction of DA. This has nothing to do with limiting the movement of people.

Second, it requires that an applicant must have a valid business permit. Most farmers are not registered, as mentioned above, and thus, have no business permits. Again, this is not within the power of DA to require a business permit, and again, this has nothing to do with restricting the movement of people. Let the farmers or business people deal with their issues with business permits. If there are penalties assessed or imposed on them for operating without business permit or on expired permit, let them deal with it utilizing their right to due process and to counsel.

Third, it requires that an applicant present its delivery vehicle’s CR/OR. Most farmers don’t have their own delivery vehicles, so they contract with different transport providers, even jeepney operators, as may be available at the time. This will narrow down the farmers' available transport choices and may subject them to greater cost. Yet again, DA has no authority to require CR/OR, and this has nothing to do with restricting the movement of people.

Fourth, in the pre-qualification form, it requires, on top of the above, that an applicant must have no complaint filed against it. How can a company control others from filing a complaint against it? To think that a good number of complaints can even be baseless. Whatever happened to presumption of innocence? Again, still, it is not within DA’s power to impose this requirement, and going back to the objective, this has nothing to do with restricting the movement of people.

Focus on the Objective

The better policy, which I think is what the president’s directive intends, is to maintain the status quo ante, which allows goods to flow unhampered subject to transport laws, and other existing laws, AND determine the proper and allowable number of delivery crew and contingent, AND subject them to thermal scan. That is hemming it squarely in the objective of the President’s directive, and the supposed limit of this administrative issuance—restricting the movement of people. A rule cannot go beyond the law it seeks to implement.

Prior to COVID-19, were delivery trucks flagged down for their DTI, SEC, CDA, DOLE registration? No.  

Were delivery trucks flagged down for their business permits? N0.

Were delivery trucks flagged down for their CR/OR? No.  

Were delivery trucks flagged down to prove they have not been complained against? No.  

In fact, even today, unless and until this issuance is enforced, DA’s William Dar’s pronouncement stands: that it suffices that delivery trucks are able to present an inventory of goods contained in the vehicle, and after delivery, a delivery receipt.

What this issuance unwittingly achieves is promote the bigger middlemen, mostly compliant with the above unwarranted requirements, where the policy is to empower the farmers, and the micro and small players, mostly marginalized. Worse, this exacting requirements will choke the food supply, resulting in food shortage, price hike, and chaos—something the government is carefully trying to avoid in this delicate situation.