Senate Minority Leader Teofisto Guingona said yesterday that rice and sugar smugglers, not farmers, benefitted from the growth in the agriculture sector reported by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).
Guingona, in a statement, said the growth posted by agriculture last year did not reflect the real condition of the sector.
"Rampant smuggling of sugar and rice into the country largely contributed to the seeming growth of agriculture. It did not mean however that the incomes of our farmers increased," he said.
NEDA chief Felipe Medalla bared last Friday that the country's economy has posted a 3.2-percent growth in 1999, with the agriculture sector growing 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter and 6.6 percent for the entire year.
Guingona said Medalla failed to mention that rampant smuggling of rice and other agricultural products into the country has greatly contributed to the seeming growth in agriculture.
The senator added that the 3.6 increase in the gross national product (GNP) was nothing when compared to that of Thailand and Malaysia which posted GNP growths of more than four percent.
"Secretary Medalla said growth figures are respectable considering that the country was not deeply affected by the regional crisis. Yet Thailand, which was the first nation hit by the economic meltdown in Asia, has already recovered and even surpassed our GNP growth last year," he said.
Guingona said the true measure of the economic recovery is the status of farmers and the masses in the countryside.