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THE Philippines is not only an exporter of rice—it has actually
become the world’s biggest buyer of the cereal in the world
market.
Officials, led by Agriculture Secretary Arthur
Yap, have been insisting that the country has no shortage of the
staple food of the vast majority of Filipinos. The only problem,
they add, is that rice has become more expensive, not just here, but
also in the world market.
So how are they going about trying to solve the
problem? Answer: By putting in more orders for rice from overseas
suppliers.
The result of what looks, smells and feels like
panic-buying by the Philippine government is even higher rice prices
in the world market.
It is bad enough that rice stocks are at a
record low world-wide. This shortage is amply illustrated in
Thailand—one of the traditional sources of rice exported by the
Philippines. Last month, per metric ton freight on board (FOB) of
Thai rice was quoted at an average of $356—by April the quotes had
jumped to $855.
As if those levels were not bad enough, the
latest tender offered by the National Food Authority of the
Philippines quoted rice prices by as much $1,200 per ton FOB.
The government’s panic-buying tends to confirm
suspicions that officials—who regularly announce, “We have
enough rice stocks,”—are not being candid at all.
In the past, this corner has been supportive of
the actions taken by the Department of Agriculture to address what
at that time seemed nothing more than a “rice-price shock.”
It has been over a month, but the situation has
not gotten any better. In fact, official announcements about a plan
to raise the retail price of NFA rice and curtail its distribution
give cause for worry.
Do our agriculture officials really know what
they are doing—or are rumors that some quarters are merely trying
to profit from the crisis correct?
Food master plan
Earlier this month, Yap announced that a
so-called food production master plan was being drawn up by the DA,
with the help of experts from the Philippine Rice Research Institute
(Philrice) and the University of the Philippines at Los Baños—along
with an “Eminent Persons Group.” These experts, Yap added, will
help oversee the implementation of the P43.7-billion FIELDS program,
“a package of intervention measures for Philippine agriculture”
released by Malacañang.
The Eminent Persons Group (EPG) includes former
DA secretaries Domingo Panganiban, Carlos Dominguez, Robert
Sebastian and Salvador Escudero III; former agriculture
undersecretary Apolinario Bautista; ex-NFA Administrator Gregorio
Tan; Philrice Executive Director Leocadio Sebastian; Dr. Emil Javier
of the National Academy for Science and Technology; Dr. Leo Gonzalez
of Strive Foundation; and former PhilRice Director Dr. Santiago
Obien.
Interestingly, the EPG does not include a single
representative from the farming sector, which fact has only made it
vulnerable to potshots from leaders of those Filipinos who do the
actual, backbreaking work of cultivating rice.
Several organizations of rice farmers were quick
to question the composition of the EPG, whose initial
recommendations include allotting more government funds for hybrid
seeds.
Jaime “Ka Jimmy” Tadeo of the National Rice
Farmers Council had this to say about the EPG: “Except for a few,
these are the very same people who have led us to this predicament.
It is no surprise that one of their fist recommendations to the
president is to raise the hybrid rice subsidy. It was upon the
advice of some of them that government wasted billions in this
failed program despite its minimal contribution to rice
production.”
Tadeo said that among the EPG’s members are
former officials who “contributed to the current rice problem when
they practically abandoned the country’s quest for rice
self-sufficiency.”
He added that these “eminent persons promoted
a strategy of relying on the international market for our rice
needs. We are now bound to suffer because of this erroneous policy.
The people who promoted this policy should be held to account for
their mistake.”
Another farmer leader, Jun Adorable, who chairs
the Forum for Organic Rice Farming in Mindanao, said: “We are
dismayed to learn that Mrs. Arroyo appointed the same people to the
Eminent Persons Group who led us down the path to disaster as
advisers on the issue of the rice crisis.”
Adorable recalled that a rice crisis occurred in
1995 during the term of an ex-DA secretary who now sits in the EPG.
“These so called ‘eminent people’ should be apologizing to the
people for their mistakes,” he added.
dansoy26@yahoo.com
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