Five farmers, who have experienced massive income loss due to the low prices of onion, committed suicide in Barangay Bayambang, Pangasinan.
This was revealed by Elvin Jerome Laceda, the President of the Young Farmers Challenge Club of the Philippines Inc., during the probe of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform on the rising onion prices on Monday, January 16.
He presented a Bayambang onion farmer identified as Merlita Gallardo or Nanay Merly, the wife of one of the five farmers who took down their lives.
"Ang kaniyang istorya ay istorya na hindi na dapat maulit dahil nalugi ang kanilang farm, nag-suicide po ang kaniyang asawa. Milyon-milyon po ang utang nila dahil doon sa harabas or army worm," Laceda said.
He said traders typically buy a kilogram of onion from Nanay Merly and other provincial farmers for only Php 100.
Apart from this, Laceda raised that due to the government's decision to import onions, Nanay Merly and her fellow farmers were forced to harvest early.
"Wala pang 100 days ang kanilang onions, kailangan nang i-harvest 85 to 90 days," Laceda said.
On January 10, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has authorized the importation of 21,060 metric tons (MT) of fresh yellow and red onions, saying that this will "address the supply gap" and "stabilize the continuous increase in the price of fresh onions in the market."
Nanay Merly added that they also experienced income loss due to the shrinking size of onions as a result of heavy rains in the province.
Laceda appealed to the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) and concerned government agencies to buy onions at reasonable prices.
"Sana marami pang katulad ni Nanay Merly na hindi mawalan ng pag-asa sa pagsisibuyas dahil kung hindi po, titigil na po sila," he added.
