College of Engineering

ABEN 2427
ABE and Related Laws,
Specifications, Contracts &
Professional Ethics
Term Paper 1
What is RA 8435 (AFMA of 1997)

Submitted To:
SACE CHITO
INSTRUCTOR
 First of all for we easily understand this Republic Act by learning the way that what is Law are

all about and its purpose to our community. Law has been defined as “a body of rules of action

or conduct prescribed by a controlling authority, and having binding legal force. That which

must be obeyed and followed by citizens subject to sanctions or legal consequence is a law.“ In

a society such as the Philippines, the law informs everyday life in a wide variety of ways and is

reflected in numerous branches of law. For example, contract law regulates agreements to

exchange goods, services, or anything else of value, so it includes everything from buying a bus

ticket to trading options on a derivatives market. Property law defines people’s rights and

duties toward tangible property, including real estate, real property, such as land or buildings,

and their other possessions and intangible property, such as bank accounts and shares of stock.

Tort law provides for compensation when someone or their property is harmed, whether in an

automobile accident or by defamation of character. Those are fields of civil law, which deals

with disputes between individuals. Offenses against a federal, state, or local community itself

are the subject of criminal law, which provides for the government to punish the offender

(Wikipedia 2019).

The establishment of a system of laws was not invented by the founding fathers of the

United States. The idea of written laws goes back to ancient Mesopotamian culture that

prospered long before the Bible was written or the civilizations of the Greeks or Romans

flowered. In fact, the oldest known evidence of a law code is tablets from the ancient city Ebla

(Tell Mardikh in modern-day Syria). They date to about 2400 BCE. However, most scholars

credit Hammurabi’s Code as the origin of written laws and a formal legal system. If you haven’t

heard of Hammurabi, you have certainly heard one of his laws: “An eye for an eye, and a tooth

for a tooth.” Hammurabi’s Code, a collection of 282 laws inscribed on an upright stone pillar,
contains many fundamental legal concepts we would recognize in today’s legal system. In fact,

Hammurabi’s reasoning for creating this code is not that far removed from the rationale for our

current legal system. In his preface, Hammurabi writes that he sets forth these laws “to bring

about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that

the strong should not harm the weak.

History of law is closely connected to the development of civilizations and operates in the

wider context of social history. Certain jurists and historians of legal process have seen legal

history as the recording of the evolution of laws and the technical explanation of how these

laws have evolved with the view of better understanding the origins of various legal concepts;

some consider legal history a branch of intellectual history. Twentieth-century historians

viewed legal history in a more contextualized manner - more in line with the thinking of social

historians. They have looked at legal institutions as complex systems of rules, players and

symbols and have seen these elements interact with society to change, adapt, resist or promote

certain aspects of civil society. Such legal historians have tended to analyze case histories from

the parameters of social-science inquiry, using statistical methods, analyzing class distinctions

among litigants, petitioners and other players in various legal processes. By analyzing case

outcomes, transaction costs, and numbers of settled cases, they have begun an analysis of legal

institutions, practices, procedures and briefs that gives a more complex picture of law and

society than the study of jurisprudence, case law and civil codes can achieve.
The Philippines is still primarily an agricultural country despite the plan to make it an industrialized

economy by 2000. Most citizens still live in rural areas and support themselves through agriculture. The

country's agriculture sector is made up of 4 sub-sectors: farming, fisheries, livestock, and forestry (the

latter 2 sectors are very small), which together employ 39.8 percent of the labor force and contribute 20

percent of GDP (Encyclopedia 2018). The country's main agricultural crops are rice, corn, coconut,

sugarcane, bananas, pineapple, coffee, mangoes, tobacco, and abaca (a banana-like plant). Secondary

crops include peanut, cassava, camote (a type of rootcrop), garlic, onion, cabbage, eggplant, calamansi (a

variety of lemon), rubber, and cotton. While The fisheries sector is divided into 3 sub-sectors:

commercial, municipal, and aquaculture (cultivation of the natural produce of bodies of water). In 1995,

the Philippines contributed 2.2 million tons, or 2 percent of total world catch, ranking it twelfth among

the top 80 fish-producing countries. In the same year, the country also earned the distinction of being the

fourth biggest producer of seaweed and ninth biggest producer of world aquaculture products.

In 1999 the fisheries sector contributed P80.4 billion at current prices, or 16 percent of gross value

added in agriculture. Total production in 1999 reached 2.7 million tons. Aquaculture contributed the

most, with 949,000 tons, followed closely by commercial fishing with 948,000 tons, and municipal
fisheries with 910,000 tons. Domestic demand for fish is substantial, with average yearly fish

consumption at 36kg per person compared to a 12kg figure for consumption of meat and other food

products (Encyclopedia 2018).

In a modern problem one of this is the farm inputs and financial assistance, the Philippine rice sector

is facing a bigger problem in labor shortage for rice farms, especially during this COVID-19 lockdown

period. We still have problems with accessing seeds, fertilizer, loans, and hiring farm labor because of

lockdowns. There are an estimated over 2 million rice farmers in the Philip¬pines. Technically,

Montemayor said this number is enough to help the Department of Agriculture (DA) achieve its newly

resurrected rice self-sufficiency plan. InIn a text exchange, Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) National

Manager Raul Montemayor said the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a bigger problem for the

agriculture sector, especially in the local rice production, which the government intends to save with ₱8.5

billion in fresh funding.

Rice tariffication law already drove rice farmers away from their farms. US Department of

Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) here in Manila said in one of its industry

reports that Filipino farmers’ decision to abandon rice farming amid declining palay prices is already

taking a toll on the Philippines’ rice production to other commercial purposes,” FAS said..Farmers’

decision to abandon rice farming and shift to other crops is a result of the decline in the price of locally

produced palay, which was triggered by the entry of large volume of imported rice into the country.
On the other hand Fishery facing their problem now on the biodiversity is threatened by unsustainable

fisheries and increasing pollution. Entire ecosystems may be degraded, and even destroyed, by human

intervention. Depletion of fish stocks results in a decrease in food supply from the sea, economic loss,

hardship to fishers and disruption of traditional ways of life. Overfishing thus threatens the ecosystem, the

sustainable use of fishing grounds and the livelihood of fishing communities. “FAO indicates that about

50 percent of global marine fisheries resources are fully exploited, 25 percent are overexploited, and

about 25 percent could, as it seems, support higher rates of exploitation (FAO, 2005a). According to the

National Marine Fisheries Service, 76 stocks were determined to be overfished in waters of the United

States of America (NMFS, 2004). On a global level, in addition to what is harvested, during the past

decade, over 7 million tonnes of fish - about 8 percent of the global catch - have been killed and discarded

yearly by fishers using insufficiently selective gear (Main ethical issues in fisheries, Article 11-25). It

should be noted that ethical issues related to the ecosystem are considered here mainly in relation to its

sustainable use by present and future generations and not in relation to any intrinsic value of the

ecosystem.
 REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8435 an act prescribing urgently related measure to modernize the Agriculture

and Fisheries sectors of the country in order to enhance their profitable, and prepare said sectors for the

challenge of globalization through an adequate, focuses and rational delivery of necessary support

services, appropriating funds therefore and for other purposes. Also it is a policy instrument which is also

known as the “Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997 simply known as AFMA, it is accept

on December 22, 1997. This law has an intension and related measures to modernize the agriculture and

fisheries sectors of the country in order to know the quality of incomes and profits in the said sectors

specifically the small farmers and fishery, by managing and give value of access to our farmers and

fishery, serving and most especially in the terms of resources.

The Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997 has contained 6 broad based provision

covering it is Production and marketing support services, Human resource development, Research

development and extension, Rural non- farm employment, Trade and fiscal incentives and General

provisions.

Production and marketing support services. The law provides for identification of Strategic

Agriculture and Fisheries Development Zones (SAFDZ) within the network of protected areas for

agricultural and agro- industrial development. Its main purpose is to assure that the lands are utilized

manageably for food, non- food production, and agro- industrialization. As well as assuring the right

access for small farmers and fisherfolks including those women who particularly involved in the said

production and giving the knowledge about trading and processing of agriculture and fisheries products.

It provides for the improvement of irrigation systems that are durable, productive, credible, affordable

and efficient among of those Filipino farmers and fisheries. In addition to that it secures consumer safety

against heavy conflicts and enhances and promotes the competitiveness of agriculture and fisheries

products.

Human Resource Development. AFMA aims to provide a more upgrade way of education to those

students who are in the field of agriculture and fisheries at all levels. Ensuring global competitiveness
among of those students are also significant. The implementation of National Integrated Human Resource

Development plan in agriculture and fisheries is very precious because it serves as a guide and instrument

for a good curricular programs, invested programs and also performance target.

Research and Development this provide for consolidation of the National Research and Development

System in Agriculture and Fisheries with the helped of Department of Agriculture and the Department of

Science and Technology. According to this the budget for agriculture and fisheries research and

development shall be at least 1% of the Gross Value Added.

Rural Non- Farm Employment this program want to reach and meet the basic need of those rural

households and assist workers most especially those farmers and fisherfolks to face a better industrial

economy together with the important components such as quality education and training, financing, health

and nutrition, basic infrastructure, etc. There are certain provided agencies that allow those Filipino

farmers and fishermen to undergo free training, free technical and advisory service.

Trade and Fiscal Incentives the main objective of AFMA regarding on this is to provide a policy

concerning in the input of our farmers and fishermen who eventually sometimes disregard because of

others countries machineries or innovation. It intends to strengthen the ability of our own workers and to

show that they deserve promotion for cooperative based- marketing system.

General Provision AFMA has an appropriation of P20 billion on its first year of implementation

(1999) and a continuing appropriation of P17 billion annually in the next six years. In order to assure that

all of the projects under the AFMA are working Congressional Oversight Committee must be created.

As my conclusion this Law was created for modernization of our fishery and agricultural field. This an

law to enhance the possible problem of globalization through enough services that will help our

environment to be socialize.
Reference;

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-introbusiness/chapter/meaning-and-purposes-of-

the-law/#:~:text=Origins%20of%20Law&text=They%20date%20to%20about%202400,and%20a

%20formal%20legal%20system.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law
https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Asia-and-the-Pacific/Philippines-

AGRICULTURE.html#:~:text=The%20Philippines%20is%20still%20primarily,an%20industrialized

%20economy%20by%202000.&text=The%20country's%20main%20agricultural%20crops,a

%20banana-like%20plant).

http://www.fao.org/3/y6634e/y6634e04.htm#:~:text=Biodiversity%20is%20threatened%20by

%20unsustainable,of%20traditional%20ways%20of%20life.

https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1997/12/22/republic-act-no-8435-s-1997/

http://rfu07.da.gov.ph/index.php/laws-issuances/republic-act-and-proclamations/2782-

republic-act-no-8435-agriculture-and-fisheries-modernization-act-afma