“Our political leaders will know our priorities only if we tell them, again and again, and if those priorities begin to show up in the polls.” – Peggy Noonan
Election season is in the air. As early as the onset of the second quarter of this year, or 14 months before elections, political aspirants and incumbents are now busy consolidating efforts for the forthcoming midterm elections.
The NIR, as the country’s newest region, has now become one of the centers of political attention from the national down to the local levels. Obviously, Negros commands one of the highest votes – but with the two provinces of the island and the province of Siquijor, it now collects forces and votes, especially for national level positions. The 2025 elections makes NIR become the apple of the eyes of “senatoriables” with more than 3 million votes – a conservative estimate. And, for all candidates agriculture must command certain level political leverages among these candidates.
NIR AND AGRICULTURE
The candidates must know more than the political dynamics of NIR but more so the socio-cultural and socio-economic spectrums of the new region, with agriculture as the most dominant point of attention among the sectors in the forthcoming elections. To win, agriculture must be an inevitable issue and a campaign platform, especially for the national positions. The senate campaign must wage agricultural slogans as the major economic driver.
With more than 50 percent of the entire island dependent on agriculture and, in the top 3 job creators, it is a no-brainer for the candidates’ platform. To give emphasis, local candidates must not only design a campaign platform for agriculture, but more importantly how it would impact their local government, especially those aspiring for local chief executives. But how would it shape up during the campaign and more importantly after elections where winners are now expected to deliver?
The island’s agriculture has around 54 percent contribution to the income of Negros Occidental, almost 50 percent in Negros Oriental, and more than 40 percent in Siquijor. It employs 48-51 percent of the total working force in the region, with women occupying almost 60 percent. The Philippine development program of the BBM administration emphasizes agricultural modernization is underway to the grassroots level with the local governments playing a crucial and valuable role. Recent infrastructure developments being undertaken such as farm to market and mill roads and other related infrastructures center on agriculture.
POST-ELECTION SUSTAINABLE IMPACTS
The campaign period for the midterm elections can be a make or break for most aspirants. The small agrarian reform beneficiaries, marginal farmers, including the fisheries sector, are not to be taken in stride. Current urban developments in the economic centers of the island are directly connected to the flourishing or diminishing state of the NIR’s agriculture. Agriculture’s wealth contributes to urban development, particularly financial circulation and business diversification, resulting in more job creation.
Aspirants must consider existing policies on how they impact the agriculture sector, especially the marginal farmers and small agrarian reform beneficiaries. Some of these are the Rice Tariffication Law of 2019, and the Sugar Industry Development Act of 2015, particularly the recent push for the re-establishment of the 2 billion pesos annual budget. The push for the genuine implementation of the agrarian reform program especially those involving big and productive land holdings subject for redistribution, farmers’ access to credit, and the government’s continuous subsidies and assistance.
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Actualization and concretization and not promises. In order to concretize the impacts of agriculture as a campaign agenda, the 2025 aspirants must recognize the existence of the major challenges NIR agriculture is beset with. The sugar industry needs significant modernization – mechanization, technological development resilient and adaptive to the worsening climate change impacts which come unpredictably. Farmers and ARB’s need appropriate farm implement and equipment, credit access and updated skills and knowledge on sugar production. While there are on-going road networks being built, these are not enough. More importantly, their strategic impact and sustainability. As a reminder, sugar remains to be the biggest economic contributor among all crops, thus, needs serious commitment, planning, and reinvestment for competitiveness.
The 2025 midterm elections is a recalibration in reshaping, as not only the NIR agriculture and agricultural policies play crucial roles in this context. The marginal farmers and small ARB’s must be moved from the sidelines to the center because economic development means uplifting their lives.
It is hoped that campaign slogans are not only written to be seen and understood but to be felt and lived with.*
