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The price of government rice may go up.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap
on Wednesday admitted that they are studying increasing the price of
rice from the National Food Authority (NFA) from the current P18.25
per kilo. He cited rising costs of production.
“As of now, [at] P18.25 [per
kilo], we are studying the structure, [because] we cannot keep
[this] price too long, the farmers might be affected,” Yap said.
He did not give a timetable for
raising the price of government rice.“[We are] not sure when to
make the decision [on the price increase]. We’ll try to come up
with a rational pricing soon,” Yap said.
He explained that it is easy to
make the decision but the Agriculture department, he said, is also
considering that millions of people will suffer if the government
acted hastily. Rice is the staple of the 86 million Filipinos.
Yap, though, hinted that the high
costs of production will compel the government to come up with a new
price for the wet season.
For palay [unhusked rice], he
said, the government’s buying price of P17 per kilo will stay
until end of May.
To stave off the apparent rice
crisis, the Agriculture department has instructed the National Food
Authority to increase its market share from 20 percent to 30 percent
to respond to the high demand for government rice, particularly in
Metro Manila.
Yap said local government units,
faith-based groups, and the Social Welfare department will be tapped
to help distribute the rice, especially to poor families. These
organizations, he added, are to also help “stop the hoarding and
diversion of government rice stocks.”
The National Bureau of
Investigation also on Wednesday summoned three big-time rice traders
for alleged rice hoarding and illegal possession of
government-subsidized and imported rice.
Lawyer Ricardo Diaz, the
bureau’s intelligence chief and concurrent head of its Task Force
on Rice Hoarding, identified the three as Adoracion del Rosario of
Philippine Grains Corp., Eleanor Rodriguez of Metro Grains
Marketing, and Gloria Reyes of Isabela Green Fields Corp.
Diaz said a surprise inspection
by the bureau’s agents of the warehouses owned by the three
traders located in Bulacan, north of Manila, Taguig City in Metro
Manila, and Paco district in Manila, showed thousands of sacks of
rice, including government and imported stocks. Empty sacks bearing
the logo of the food agency were also found.
All indications, he said, pointed
to rice hoarding and illegal possession of government rice and sacks
since the warehouses were not accredited by the food agency.
“We will ask them to present
their log books and other supporting documents to prove that they
are not hoarding rice,” Diaz added.
He said subpoenas had been sent
to the suspected rice hoarders, giving them three days to appear
before the bureau to explain their side.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez
earlier created the Anti-Rice Hoarding Task Force, whose members are
all prosecutors empowered to file charges against rice hoarders.
Gonzalez said traders found to be
hoarding rice could be charged with violation of Presidential Decree
4 (National Grains Authority Act), Consumer Code of the Philippines,
plunder and economic sabotage. The National Grains Authority,
created in the early 1970s by the Marcos administration, is the
forerunner of the National Food Authority.
In a bid to stop hoarding,
Administrator Jessup Navarro of the food agency said they are
expanding their direct selling through the help of different
sectors. Although they cannot supply 100 percent the rice needs of
the country, he added, the Philippines will be rice-sufficient in
the next 58 days. He noted that harvest time starts soon. The
government had said it was expecting a bumper crop.
To help sustain record-high palay
yields and eventually achieve self-sufficiency amid an apparently
imminent global food crisis, the Agriculture department has created
the Eminent Persons Task Force. The group is composed of
agricultural experts Dr. Emil Javier, Dr. Leo Gonzalez, and Dr.
Santiago Obien; former Agriculture Undersecretary Apolinario
Bautista; and Gregorio Tan, former administrator of the food agency.
Yap said the task force will
watch over the department’s implementation of President Gloria
Arroyo’s “Fields.”
Fields stands for fertilizer;
irrigation; education and training of farmers and fishermen; loans,
dryers and other post-harvest facilities; and seeds of
high-yielding, hybrid varieties. Industry leaders and chambers of
commerce have thrown their support behind Fields.
At the grassroots, the
government’s efforts to keep the flow of government rice steady
appeared to have hit some snags.
The coordinator of Caritas
Manila, Fr. Mar Castillo, also on Wednesday said the dwindling
supply of government rice in the market has become alarming, forcing
them to “hide” rice for distribution before it ran out.
The government had tapped the
Roman Catholic Church in selling the subsidized rice.
Caritas Manila is a Church-based
charity organization founded by the late Manila Archbishop Jaime
Cardinal Sin.
“We don’t display it
[government rice] anymore just to avoid a mob of buyers,”
Castillo, also the vice-chairman of the Union of Church
Cooperatives, said on the website of the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of the Philippines.
The priest said the allocation of
24,000 sacks of rice by the government thru the National Food
Authority for all the dioceses of Metro Manila should be tripled for
the Church to be able to cater to all buyers.
In Cubao, Quezon City, supply of
rice for distribution to poor communities there was used up a few
hours after the program started at the Transfiguration of Our Lord
Parish Church.
The head of the Parish Social
Service Committee, Rolly Retirado, said the number of sacks of rice
given to them for distribution by the National Food Authority fell
short of what they had expected.
“We asked for at least 25 sacks
or rice, but the NFA said that they could only give us 20 sacks. I
hope they will increase this [allocation] since there are many
buyers,” Retirado told reporters.
Earlier, Bishop Broderick Pabillo
of Manila said they have asked the Agriculture department to ensure
that the “Bigasan sa Parokya” should get an ample supply of
rice.
--Ira Karen Apanay, Angelo S. Samonte, Anthony Vargas And William
B. Depasupil
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