|
Food riots are unlikely to happen in the Philippines,
the government, the private sector and the police assured.
Such incidents reportedly taking
place elsewhere, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. said Monday,
should inspire unity, not factionalism, among Filipinos.
“I think what this [possibility
of food riots] will do on the contrary is to give us more incentives
and impetus to work together to solve the problem rather than
fractionalizing the country,” he added.
Unity, Malacañang also said,
will pull the country through the food crisis.
While it said it is seriously
considering a recent warning made by the International Monetary Fund
that continuing increases in food prices will impact heavily on the
world’s poor, the government is already addressing the issue,
Deputy Press Secretary Lorelei Fajardo said.
“The Arroyo administration is
appealing for unity, [and for] the opposition and the [government]
to overcome this problem instead of [continuing with]
politicking,” she added.
IMF warned on Monday that further
increases in food prices will be devastating for the world’s poor
and throw hundreds of thousands of them into starvation.
If food inflation keeps
accelerating at its current rate, “the consequences will be
terrible,” IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told
reporters at the IMF’s semi-annual meetings in Washington.
“Hundreds of thousands of people will be starving, leading to a
disruption of the economic environment.”
In the Philippines, Teodoro said,
the security environment is “basically very stable,” which could
rule out food riots. He added that the rice problem is a global one.
The Defense secretary cited the “problems” of Thailand, a big
rice exporter. “So, it [supposed shortage of the Filipinos’
staple] is not specific to the Philippines,” a big rice importer.
He said it will be
counterproductive to exploit food as a political weapon. Food as an
issue, he added, will not advance any justifiable or rational
political cause. Rather, using it as a platform will only show the
irrationality or terrorism of threat groups.
Food riots also are not foreseen
by former Ambassador Donald Dee of the Philippine Chamber of
Commerce and Industry. He pointed to the country’s “strong”
basic economic fundamentals.
“We have enough reserves,
foreign exchange; we have very positive collection … so I don’t
think that we should be concerned with having civil war because of
the world-wide problem in food,” Dee said during a weekly news
forum.
He added that such incidents
could be prevented as long as the government will remain transparent
and undistracted.
“Let’s not be bothered by the
critics, it is their job to criticize, [but] what is important is
for the government to continue doing what is right for the
people,” Dee said.
The national police chief agreed
with Dee and Teodoro.
Director General Avelino Razon
Jr. also disputed an apparent warning made earlier by Justice
Secretary Raul Gonzalez on possible food riots. He said the
Philippines has enough supply of rice and corn.
Sufficiency in the grains was
also noted by a congressman from Manila. “Even if the prices of
rice soar in the market, I believe that riots are next to impossible
[to happen here],” Benjamin Asilo said.
Razon said food riots “will not
happen here, it is too far-fetched for them to happen. We are
different from Haiti. Our people are more disciplined.”
Haiti’s government collapsed on
Saturday after senators sacked the prime minister. Lawmakers there
had hoped to defuse widespread anger over rising food prices, which
have led to days of deadly protests and looting.
Gonzalez had noted that
Bangladesh, India and Argentina were also facing the prospects of
food problems.
Flour front
Government’s campaign to also
avert a supposedly looming flour shortage apparently got a lift from
the confiscation of P23-million worth of flour from China.
Thirty-two container vans holding
the shipment were seized late Monday by Customs authorities at the
Port of Manila.
The shipment, although properly
declared by its importer, was still seized since it lacked necessary
clearance from the Bureau of Food and Drugs, Customs Commissioner
Napoleon Morales said. “It might not be fit for human
consumption,” he added during a phone interview.
The seizure was a result of the
bureau’s crackdown on smuggling of agricultural goods and
regulated imports such as rice, sugar and onions.
Flour is the main ingredient of
bread, most particularly pan de sal, a popular breakfast staple in
the Philippines.
There were fears that flour
prices will go up, despite importers’ recent assurance that they
will go down by September this year.
--Angelo S. Samonte, Jefferson Antiporda, Sammy Martin, Maricel
V. Cruz And
Anthony Vargas
|
