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The Roman Catholic Church will help the government
distribute rice as the country tries to fend off fears of a rice
crisis.
Fr. Mar Castillo, representative
of Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, said Monday that the
National Food Authority is setting aside at least 50,000 sacks of
rice a week for distribution by a diocese. Pabillo heads the
National Secretariat for Social Action, an arm of the Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
Dioceses across the country,
though, will have to organize themselves first before they can
distribute the staple, Castillo told the Church-run Radio Veritas
during an interview.
Cooperatives in the parishes will
also be tapped for the rice distribution, he said.
He added that the initial plan
was for the rice distribution to be implemented first in Metro
Manila, or the National Capital Region, through the dioceses. After
pilot testing in Metro Manila, the next step is to implement the
distribution nationwide.
Members of the clergy and
government officials, including Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap,
met Monday morning at the Manila Hotel to thresh out details of the
plan. Officials of the food authority and the National Irrigation
Administration also attended the meeting.
Castillo said the Catholic Church
was tapped to help in the distribution so that delivery will be
orderly and that intended beneficiaries will receive their share
directly.
As such, speculation that the
distribution is being manipulated to benefit only a few will be
quashed, he added. Castillo said Filipinos trust that through the
Catholic Church, they will surely be able to buy government rice and
be free from the hold of hoarders.
President Gloria Arroyo has
authorized authorities to take over the operations of warehouses of
rice traders who will go on a rice holiday or stop selling the
staple food, said Justice Secretary Neptali Gonzalez.
The rice traders earlier
threatened to stop selling rice in protest against the
government’s random inspection of rice warehouses and cancellation
of some licenses and other measures to arrest the supposed rice
shortage.
Gonzalez said President Arroyo
had cited “visitorial powers” of the National Food Authority.
He advised the rice traders to
“think twice” before pushing through with their rice-holiday
plan.
Gonzalez also cited Sections 17,
18 and 19 of the 1987 Constitution that authorizes the government to
take over during a rice shortage and other abnormal situations.
Rice traders are to meet with
government officials in Malacañang today.
Gonzalez earlier formed a
five-man, all-prosecutor Anti-Rice Hoarding Task Force and tapped as
well all prosecutors throughout the country to lead the filing of
charges against rice hoarders.
The authorities are also looking
at so-called rice cartels that reportedly corner
government-subsidized rice in connivance with corrupt personnel of
the National Food Authority. These cartels would later repack and
sell government rice at much higher prices in the retail market.
Alleged anomalies in the food
agency’s rice-distribution process are said to have hounded past
Agriculture secretaries.
Yap admitted that prices of rice
have gone up in the international market but maintained that there
is no rice shortage in the country. The Philippines imports some 2.1
million metric tons of rice every year from neighboring countries,
such as Thailand and Vietnam.
The government, facing a looming
rice crisis, has proposed to enter into a partnership with the
Catholic Church to ensure steady distribution of rice. It will sell
the rice at P18.25 per kilo.
Officials of the Agriculture
department and the National Food Authority also on Monday said the
country could be self-sufficient in rice by 2010.
Agriculture Undersecretary
Emmanuel Paras told the weekly Kapihan sa Manila Hotel that the
deadline could be met because the country needs only three million
metric tons to be self-sufficient.
“Every year, we have a gap
between consumption and production so we have to import. Right now,
we are 90-percent self sufficient, meaning, our consumption is a
just a little higher than our production,” food authority
Administrator Jessup Navarro said.
“But before we achieve
self-sufficiency, we need to restore and enhance irrigation and
post-harvest facilities,” Paras said.
Navarro said the country will
have ample supply of rice up to the so-called lean months (July,
August and September).
“We still have our summer
harvest. As of now, there is no rice shortage in the country,” he
added.
By 2008, Paras said, the
Agriculture department is targeting to produce 17.3 million metric
tons of rice.
Last year, he added, they looked
at 37 rice-producing key provinces to lead rice generation for this
year. This year, 10 of these provinces—Nueva Ecija, Isabela,
Pangasinan, Iloilo, Cagayan, Leyte, Camarines Sur, Tarlac, North
Cotabato and Maguindanao—produced 7.5 million metric tons,
equivalent to 46 percent of last year’s production.
Earlier, Pampanga Archbishop
Paciano Aniceto also told Radio Veritas during an interview that the
rice problem is not the result of unchecked population growth.
Instead, he blamed government’s alleged mismanagement of the
country’s resources.
He appealed to rice traders to
show patriotism by not hoarding the staple.
The United Nations’ Food
Authority Organization also on Monday said the world’s rice
production will be increasing by 12 million tons or 1.8 percent by
2008, “easing the current tight supply.”
The organization, in a statement,
added that assuming normal weather conditions, rice-producing
countries, such as Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, and the
Philippines are expected to increase their rice production.
Today, Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of
Valor), farmers will be the guests of President Arroyo.
The President had invited them to
“honor them and other high-productivity farmers.” She extended
the invitation during the National Food Summit held in Fontana,
Clark, Pampanga, on April 4. During the summit, Mrs. Arroyo vowed a
P39.5-billion package to increase agricultural production
particularly by rice farmers.
--William B. Depasupil, Ruben Manahan 4th And Ira Karen Apanay
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