SEN. Francis Pangilinan has asked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to certify as urgent a bill institutionalizing the extension services to farmers and fishermen to uplift their living conditions.

The senator on Sunday said Senate Bill (SB) 1182, or the proposed Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Act of 2025, which he filed last Aug. 13, would ensure rural development.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform raised the need to strengthen agricultural cooperatives and agricultural extension services at the provincial and municipal levels.

"We will start the hearing regarding this and we will ask the president to certify these bills as urgent," Pangilinan said in Filipino.

He was referring to SB 1182 and the bill strengthening the agriculture coops under the Department of Agriculture (DA).

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Being a farmer himself, Pangilinan said he has personal awareness of the systematic failure to provide extension services to farmers and fisherfolk. Pangilinan, who has been running his own farm in Alfonso, Cavite for over 10 years, said the nearest DA regional office to him was located three hours away -- in Lipa, Batangas. This resulted in the inability of local farmers and fisherfolk to access critical government services such as loans, financial aid for pesticides and fertilizers, technical training, and many more, he said. SB 1182 will create the Philippine Agriculture and Fisheries Extension Agency, replacing the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), to serve "as the national apex organization for a unified and efficient agriculture and fisheries extension system of the country."

It would ensure that public extension services meet the national standards of performance and effectively contribute towards the achievement of the goals of agriculture and fisheries modernization and sustainable development.

Pangilinan urges Marcos Jr. to prioritize bill aiding farmers, fishermen