WHEN the old policy paradigms cease to work — the data and on-the-ground realities would always tell the polity that current policies are next to useless or are harmful to the broader society — the government shifts gears and makes the corresponding policy adjustments, often described in a tired cliché called 'paradigm shift.' There are times, however, when the shifts demand more than the usual amendment and tweaking, policy refinements that fall short. The government then determines it is time for the so-called epochal shifts and radical pivots. Say goodbye to the old and invoke times-are-a-changin.

Germany's word of the year, 'Zeitenwende,' which loosely means 'historic turning point,' aptly captures the nation's sense to dramatically alter its long-standing policy to make defense and military spending a non-priority. The Russian invasion of Ukraine made Germany realize that relying on trade, exports and goodwill is not enough to shield it from acts of aggression. And that Zeitenwende, that historic turning point, drove the decision to up its defense and military spending — and prepare for the worst, militarily. Indeed, times-are-a-changin.

To turn things around, to do a 'Zeitenwende' is right now applicable in the Philippine context, specifically for the task of dealing with the centerpiece agenda of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the agriculture sector.

To resurrect Philippine agriculture from its prostrate status, the government of Mr. Marcos should invoke 'Zeitenwende' and declare that the tired policy approaches have not worked and will never work. That a break from the old is due. That we are at a historic turning point. And from hereon, will do agricultural policies differently, radically and boldly. There is no other option but to make that determination. And make it now.

Mr. Marcos right now has a grand opportunity to declare his break boldly and emphatically from the tired, discredited agricultural policies. The RCEP, a regional trade pact that would defenestrate the little life that is still left of Philippine agriculture once ratified, is up for Senate ratification. Mr. Marcos should heed the appeal of the food producers and the peasantry, and boldly declare against the wishes of his free-market obsessed economic managers that agriculture would get another terrible beating with the ratification of the RCEP. A declaration of 'No' from Mr. Marcos would lead the senators to reject the RCEP, which in the first place is the real sense of the Senate as a whole.

Declare a historic turning point for agriculture, Sir, starting with a little nudge to the Senate for the rejection of the RCEP. Based on the compelling arguments on how many of the agricultural tariff lines would be cut under the RCEP and how those tariff cuts, once a done deal, would literally make the Philippines a dumping ground for the cheap agri exports of those in the trading bloc.

People not familiar with the roots and origins of Philippine agriculture's ICU status may ask these questions: What would make the Senate's rejection of the RCEP such a big deal? It is just one regional trade pact. Why would the rejection of RCEP signal the beginning of the end of the deadbeat policies for the sector? OK, I will provide the background on the why's. And let us start with the year 1995, the year of the Philippine accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Before the accession to the WTO in 1995, before the full embrace of globalized trade, Philippine agriculture — let us admit this — survived on a year-to-year basis. But, this is important to point out, it was humming with residual life and there was parity between agricultural exports and imports. Even those engaged in small-scale farming were more or less content with their humdrum, low-income lives. Because at the end of the day, there was food on the table and money for the basic necessities.

The Philippine accession to the WTO, with its ambitious global reach and vastly expanded from the original GATT, or the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade, was peddled by the economic managers at that time as an economic savior and savior of Philippine agriculture. These were the post-accession grand scenarios peddled by the economic team of Mr. Ramos:

– Surge in agricultural jobs

– Increase in agricultural exports

– An elevated gross value added (GVA) for the agriculture sector.

The three turned out to be the greatest hoaxes officially peddled in the upper half of the 20th century.

Seven years after the WTO accession, a review of its impact on Philippine agriculture made the following findings: massive loss of agricultural jobs, decrease in agricultural exports and a precipitous drop in agriculture sector's GVA.

The WTO accession stripped Philippine agriculture of its last sinews of dynamism and robustness, and officially downgraded the rural areas as the public face of Philippine underdevelopment and poverty.

But instead of reversing course and expressing remorse over the hoaxes sold during the accession campaign, all subsequent Philippine governments, bar none, doubled down on that agriculture-killing course. The Duterte administration, on the orchestration of Benjamin Diokno, pronounced that 'agriculture is a sunset sector and service is ascendant,' and made good use of that tortured formulation. It scrapped the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice, passed the Rice Tariffication Law, and issued executive orders that made food importation the default position on food shortages.

The Department of Agriculture was transformed into a mere clearing house for food imports and attempted to cover up that mendacity by propping up its propaganda arm and funding a press release factory that rolled out phantom programs.

That was the prostrate agriculture sector inherited by Mr. Marcos.

More than 100 organizations — peasant groups, food producers and civil society — have warned Mr. Marcos that the RCEP would be the final dagger that would kill the prostrate and uncompetitive agriculture for good. These groups are hoping for decisive actions on the part of Mr. Marcos, which are: nudge the Senate into rejecting the RCEP and declare that it is now the moment for a 'Zeitenwende,' a historic turning point, policy-wise, for his flagship program.