Philippines? “Dissolve The DA!” – Cito Beltran. “Return The DA To William Dar; He Has The Servant Leadership!” – Frank A Hilario

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I was shocked to see on Facebook PhilStarcolumnist Cito Beltran and his 3-word recommendation: “Dissolve The DA”! Ramon Yedra shares: “Barking at the wrong tree.” I cannot agree more – you can read Mr Yedra’s comments on Facebook. Me, I say, that that is like Mr Beltran saying, “If you can’t solve a problem, change the problem!” – quotation ascribed to successful American industrialist Henry Ford, inventor of the assembly line technique for mass production (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org). Mr Beltran is looking at the mess production involving the Department of Agriculture (DA), not how it came about.

“if you can’t solve a problem, change the problem!” It looks like I have used that quotation many times in my blogging; you can find it in these my 4 different essays in 4 different blogs in 4 different years:

2008 Dec 16, “2nd Red Revolution! Red Nuts Grow On Badlands” (Creative Thinkering, blogspot.com);
2010 Jun 29, “Philippine Canvas. How The Flinch Stole Hugeness,” A Magazine Called Love,  blogspot.com);
2016 Nov 28, “MOM Philippines, Amanpour & McLuhan: Understanding Man, Not Media,” Alternative Journalism, ialternativejournalism.blogspot.com);
2019 Aug 27, “Frank A Hilario Investigates The Paradigms & Paradigm Shifts Of William Dar” (Ani Kita, ianikita.blogspot.com).

That list is to show how varied my perspective is, and also to show I know where Cito Beltran is coming from – frustration. Frustration either from people’s different recommendations about what to do, or Mr Beltran not properly understanding the problem.

Mr Beltran says:

After years of inefficiency, inaction during various shortages of food commodities and mounting consumer frustration, one wonders if the time has come for radical solutions concerning the state of Philippine agriculture and the full devolution of the Department of Agriculture? This would certainly jive with the right-sizing pronouncements of the PBBM administration.

Mr Beltran is frustrated about “mounting consumer frustration,” and blames the DA for all that, and so he wants the DA to be dissolved.

In the words of a former undersecretary, we might as well shut them down and just give away the funds since that is essentially the core of their activity. Given that DA officials have confessed they are “powerless” to control the price of onion, failed to import to fill the shortage and artificial inflation of onion prices, while importing GG or galunggong by the tons, what good is the Department of Agriculture and what special purpose do they serve that cannot be devolved down to the regional/provincial level?

High prices, shortages, artificial inflation of prices, including unnecessary imports – Mr Beltran blames it all on the DA.

In non-union, there’s no strength! We need a visionary leader. We need William Dar back as Secretary of Agriculture – he has shown the Vision & Mission to manage the unmanageable DA! Remember: Within CGIAR, he brought India-based ICRISAT from dead last to #1 as Director General, 2000-2014.

Give back Mr Dar the power of Servant Leadership of the DA!@517

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