Villar on rant vs DA budget: It’s not against research

MANILA, Philippines — After drawing flak for lashing out at the huge funding that the Department of Agriculture (DA) allotted for corn study, the chair of the Senate committee on agriculture and food sought to clarify her stand, saying she was not against research per se but the type of research with no practical application.

“I look at the budget of the Department of Agriculture and it shouldn’t be all on research without application,” said Sen. Cynthia Villar, whose family owns one of the country’s biggest real estate developers.

Villar had questioned the DA allocation for research under its National Corn Program. The DA is seeking P150 million in its 2020 budget to finance the program.

READ: Villar hits DA for high budget on corn research: ‘Baliw na baliw kayo sa research’

Villar said she just wanted to advise the DA to divide its budget between research and application since research alone will not help the farming sector.

“I was telling them that if you have budget, you divide it,” said Villar, one of the country’s richest legislators.

“One half of the budget should be research and another half would be for the application of your research and how it will impact on the farmers,” Villar said.

“Because if you have research, research per se, and you don’t apply it to the farming communities, what is the use of research? We are researching to improve lives and the industry of agriculture,” she said./TSB