Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, who was named new head the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform, vowed to fight for the rights of farmers and fisherfolk, achieve food security, bring down the prices of food, and pass legislation critical to the country’s agricultural sector.
The announcement of appointment was made during a caucus on Tuesday, July 29, to discuss legislative matters in the Senate.
“I am honored to serve again as Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture,” Pangilinan said in a press release.
“Our farmers and fisherfolk are the ones who feed the country. It is imperative that they be given adequate and proper support to improve their livelihoods and ensure food supply,” he said.
Lamenting the state of the country’s agricultural sector and the pervasive hunger in the most vulnerable sectors, he turned addressing urgent food security issues into his battlecry during the 2025 senatorial campaign.
As one of his first acts as a fourth-term senator, Pangilinan filed the “Libreng Almusal” measure to provide free breakfast for day care to senior high school students in public schools.
He filed resolutions to investigate the soaring food prices and the government’s failure to implement the Sagip Saka Act, which allows national and local governments to buy food directly from farmers and fisherfolk without public bidding.
Pangilinan also wants inquiries into possible amendments of the Rice Tariffication Law and the impact of commercial fishing inside the 15-kilometer municipal waters on small-scale fishers.
To institutionalize the protection of agricultural lands and farmer support, the senator is pushing for the creation of the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and is proposing the passage of the Agricultural Land Conversion Ban and the Post Harvest Facilities Support Act.
This is not Pangilinan’s first stint as chair of the Senate agriculture committee. He was previously chairman from 2010 to 2013 and from 2016 to 2017.
In his capacity as agriculture committee chair, Pangilinan was instrumental in passing the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010 and was the principal author of the Sagip Saka Act of 2019.
He has championed food security and agricultural reforms for years, and was assigned as Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization from 2014 to 2015 during former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s term, the press release said.
As food security czar, he brought down rice inflation to 0.8% and overall inflation to 1.5 percent –the lowest, it added.*