CHR calls for stronger policies allowing farmers, fisherfolk to work amid ECQ

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is calling on the government to strengthen policies allowing farmers and fisherfolk to work amid the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) now being enforced in Luzon and other parts of the Philippines.

“All local government units should allow the sector’s access to their farms and municipal waters and allow unhampered access to distribution of their products,” CHR Spokesperson Jacqueline Ann de Guia said Thursday in a statement.

“The government, both national and local, should also consider buying the harvest, particularly of small-scale farmers and fisherfolk, to be used for the relief operations and mobile markets not only in rural but urban communities as well,” she added.

The CHR also urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) to create mechanisms to guarantee that farmers and fisherfolk will be able to sell their products “at equitable prices and not resort to selling them below market value.”

“Food security has been one of the primary challenges of the government in its battle against the virus. Ensuring adequate and affordable food supply during a period of decreased economic activity will be a key element in its crisis response,” de Guia noted.

While Inter-Agency Task Force’s (IATF) Resolution No. 15 recognizes farmers and fisherfolk as part of the essential sector tasked to keep food supply going amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the CHR noted that: “they are facing a myriad of problems and the crisis has exacerbated already existing inequalities that they are experiencing.”

For one, the CHR said fisherfolks in Metro Manila, particularly in Navotas, Las Piñas, and Malabon have reported a variety of issues, such as inconsistency between local government units in allowing them to fish, and regulations “which they deem as an additional economic burden to them during these trying times.”

These fisherfolk, particularly women fishers, are experiencing physical, mental, and economical disability while being primarily tasked to ensure food security and safety of their families, according to the CHR.

The IATF has also considered agriculture and fisheries stakeholders as frontliners “whose movements shall remain unhampered” through Resolution No. 21, series of 2020, on April 6.

“The quarantine measures have affected the ability of farmers and fisherfolks to sell their products, even though the government has ensured unhampered distribution of their products,” de Guia noted.

While the CHR commends the government for providing financial assistance and aid through the Social Amelioration Program (SAP), the Commission also noted that these social protection schemes should be adequate and accessible to the agricultural sector.

About 26.4 million low-income Filipino families are set to receive P256 billion worth of aid from the government’s subsidy programs. Those qualified as beneficiaries will get between P5,000 to P8,000; the amounts are based on the prevailing wage rates in the regions where the beneficiaries live.

The DA recently asked indigenous peoples to transform their idle ancestral lands as food production areas in a bid to ensure stable food supply in the country amid the pandemic.

/MUF