FRANCISCO S. TATAD
AN apocryphal story is told about the late President Ramon Magsaysay and the late Senate President Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez, the two most powerful Filipino politicians in the 1950s, discussing the high price of rice which had been rising beyond the average consumer’s reach. Then, as now, because the harvest had been poor, the government had to import the staple from abroad. But at what price! This naturally became the President’s headache. What could he do to bring down the prices, RM wondered.