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As more evidence comes in, it is now becoming clear that the rice
price shock is more of a police matter than anything else. However,
the panic some quarters tried to whip up—for obvious political
reasons—suited the racketeers just fine. Consumer fears, albeit
baseless, did succeed in driving rice prices even higher.
As Sen. Edgardo Angara told reporters last
weekend, the so-called rice shortage was an artificial crisis
created by hoarders and crooked traders.
Sure enough, media reports from the various
regions showed how thousands of metric tons of government-subsidized
rice were diverted, repacked and resold at prices much higher than
the P18.25 per kilo offered by the National Food Authority.
Angara knew of what he spoke. He chairs, after
all, the Senate agriculture committee and had at one time been
agriculture secretary.
What the country is actually experiencing are
problems in the distribution of the national staple, he said. Panic
over the seeming shortage of rice is being fanned by the hoarders
and the crooked traders themselves in anticipation of further
increases in rice prices.
Working on the same theory as Angara’s, the
government has launched several measures to stabilize retail prices,
which officials insist can be achieved soon since there are enough
stocks of rice for the rest of the year.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, for one, has
ordered the NFA to engage in the direct or supervised selling not
only of government-subsidized inventories but also of the
medium-priced varieties, particularly in the country’s 10 most
hunger-prone provinces.
NFA has begun packing its stocks in one-kilo or
two-kilo bags to prevent crooks from repacking government-subsidized
stocks from NFA sacks to private sacks or mixing them with
well-milled varieties in order to sell them at higher prices.
Warehouse stakeout
In tandem with the National Bureau of
Investigation and the National Police, the Department of Agriculture
said it has begun staking out NFA’s 500 warehouses and private
warehouses nationwide to make sure that no government-subsidized
rice are diverted to wholesalers or retailers and then sold as more
expensive commercial stocks.
On Monday officials announced the NBI was
scheduled to sign a memorandum of agreement with the NFA that would
authorize the bureau to investigate, confiscate hoarded cereals and
charge suspected rice hoarders and price manipulators.
NBI agents will be deputized by the NFA on the
basis of Presidential Decree No. 4, the Law Creating Grains
Authority Act, which provides that only the NFA has the power to
conduct investigation on incidents involving NFA rice.
The law has thus far hobbled lawmen going after
crooked rice traders. A case in point is the alleged hoarding of
20,000 sacks of NFA rice, which NBI operatives uncovered in
Valenzuela last week. Without NFA deputation, however, they could
not seize the suspected contraband.
With the MOA, officials of both agencies said
they are confident the campaign against crooked traders could go
into high gear.
The NFA will directly distribute not only
subsidized rice but also commercial varieties priced from P24 to P25
a kilo under a “supervised selling” scheme, which will involve
the repacking of stocks in per-kilo bags.
The agency will deliver stocks directly to
retail outlets in lieu of the standard practice of allowing
accredited traders to pick them up from NFA warehouses. Yap said he
expects this new procedure to prevent switching or mixing of
commercial stocks by crooked traders.
Weed out profiteers
President Arroyo has ordered the cancellation of
the passbooks of the 10,000 NFA-accredited cereal retailers
nationwide in a bid to weed out profiteers. Only those engaged in
legitimate trading will be re-accredited.
In addition, Yap has asked the NBI to conduct a
comprehensive audit of all import licenses issued by NFA since he
took over as DA chief in October 2006, to determine which traders
had actually imported what volumes and where such imports had been
delivered or sold. The results of the NBI audit should help the DA
to come down hard on crooked traders.
The DA has also taken legal action against NFA
officials and employees found to be in cahoots with traders who have
been illegally diverting government-subsidized rice stocks to
commercial outlets. The NFA recently relieved two of its top
officials in Isabela, including its Cagayan Valley regional
director, pending an investigation of an alleged rice scam in the
province involving NFA personnel.
In a recent huddle with newsmen, Yap promised
more results as the government steps up its campaign against crooked
rice traders. He even hinted at a purge in the NFA—as soon as
evidence becomes available.
dansoy26@yahoo.com
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