The best carabaos in the Philippines can give 7 liters of milk in a day. Average ones, only 3 liters a day. This upset Senator Cynthia Villar because in Israel, cows can yield 40 liters of milk in a single day.

“[I saw it] with my own eyes, my God! I went there!” Villar said during a hearing of the Senate committee on agriculture, food, and agrarian reform on Tuesday, September 1. She is the head of the committee.

Having seen the prospects of a thriving dairy industry, Villar wanted to hear from Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) executive director Arnel del Barrio about the progress of projects laid out for the year.

Among those projects was the construction of 28 dairy processing centers in certain parts of the country where local governments were interested and had the potential to grow their dairy production. At P10 million for each processing center, some P280 million was allocated for the project on top of the PCC’s annual budget.

When Del Barrio could not explain why not one of the planned dairy processing centers has been built, Villar became visibly irked.

“Anong problema doon? P10 million per project, kadali-dali, hindi ‘nyo magawa? Akala ko ba ang problema ninyo, budget? Binigyan ko kayo ng pera, hindi ‘nyo rin ginawa,” Villar told Del Barrio. She had lobbied for that allocation in the 2020 national budget.

(What’s the problem with that? P10 million per project, so easy, and you couldn’t do it? I thought your problem was the budget? I gave you the money but you didn’t do it.)

“So hindi budget ang problema ‘nyo. ‘Yung inyong desire and passion to help the people – wala ‘yon (So your problem isn’t the budget. Your desire and passion to help the people – it’s nonexistent),” Villar added.

Villar has been through this with the PCC before. In January, she dressed down the agency for failing to significantly increase milk production despite a nearly P3-billion program. With the country’s dependence on imported milk, it’s no wonder Filipino children were getting dull, the senator said then. Foreign dairy is too expensive for the masses.

On Tuesday, Villar said the local dairy industry only supplies 0.6% of the demand, so 99.4% of milk consumed in the Philippines is imported.

If Israel, with land so arid that cattle feeds need to be cultivated, is able to make cows deliver 40 liters a day, shouldn’t the Philippines, far lusher than the Middle East, be able to keep up?

Villar told Del Barrio that the point of putting all that money into research was so that the country can produce better carabaos that can produce more milk.

“That is why I have my misgivings about research,” Villar said. So far, the ones given the funds have failed to produce the desired results, she added.

A real estate mogul, Villar said those dairy processing centers would have been built in a heartbeat if it were up to her. The lawmaker had envisioned livelihood programs for dairy farmers centered on those buildings.

“Sinira mo ‘yung pangarap ko para sa mga dairy farmers. Akala ko maiintindihan mo ako (You ruined my dream for the dairy farmers. I thought you would understand me),” Villar told Del Barrio.

“Itutuloy po natin, Ma’am, ‘yung pangarap ‘nyo (We’ll push through with your dream, Ma’am),” Del Barrio replied. 

“Basta ang promise namin sa inyo Ma’am, makikita ninyo, at the end of this project, may processing facility. ‘Yun po ‘yung promise namin sa inyo (Our promise to you, Ma’am, you will see, at the end of this project, there will be processing facilities. That is our promise to you),” the PCC chief added.

“Eh kung hindi ako nagalit sa iyo at hindi kita inimbestigahan? Sinasabi mo ngayon ‘yan kasi iniimbestigahan na kita (What if I didn’t get mad at you and I didn’t investigate you? You’re saying that now because I am already investigating you),” the senator said.

Villar then asked Del Barrio where the money went. “Nasanay yata kayo na kung saan-saan ‘nyo dinadala budget ‘nyo eh (You’ve gotten used to squandering your budget, haven’t you)?”

The dairy processing centers could have helped carabao herders earn P300 a day, adding up to P9,000 a month – a big help for poor families, Villar said.

The senator said she handpicked the locations for the 28 dairy processing centers based on their local cattle industries. They were supposed to be built in Abra, La Union, Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur, Nueva Vizcaya, Bataan, Bulacan, Laguna, Tarlac, Palawan, Albay, Masbate, Negros Oriental, Iloilo, Cebu, Siquijor, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, Davao Oriental, Davao del Sur, Compostela Valley, North Cotabato, and South Cotabato. – Rappler.com