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By Angelo S. Samonte, Reporter
President Gloria Arroyo asked the United States
to help ensure food supply in the Philippines amid soaring oil and
food prices.
She made the call in separate meetings in
Washington, D.C., with President George W. Bush and US Agriculture
Secretary Edward Schaefer.
“During our meetings with President Bush and
Agriculture Secretary Schaefer, we called on the US, as the
breadbasket of the world, to help ensure supply, invest in research,
and continue to provide vital humanitarian supplies to the truly
needy in our nation and others affected by this global
phenomenon,” she said before the US-Asean Business Council and the
US Chamber of Commerce.
The President said the surging prices of oil and
food are a global challenge that can be overcome only through the
cooperation of all nations.
She urged the US to invest in research so that
the solutions to the skyrocketing oil and food prices could be found
and provide urgently needed humanitarian supplies to the needy.
“The government is working hard to make sure
that our country’s food supplies remain stable, and we put food on
the table,” she said. “To date, we have been able to keep the
situation from becoming a crisis through swift interventions to
ensure our supply of rice, effective distribution and enforcement of
laws against hoarding.”
The Philippines, a founding member of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), has been working
with other members of the regional bloc to surmount the oil and food
crisis.
But Mrs. Arroyo said the Asean needs “a
strong, global leadership and coordination if we are to avert this
from becoming a perpetual problem.”
As the government loses control over soaring
fuel prices, the Arroyo administration has lifted the tariff on
imported oil as part of an overall effort to moderate drastic
increases in the prices of the commodity.
And to avoid supply disruption, the government
has been working to seal more contracts with big rice-exporting
countries in Asia and has started investing heavily in local rice
production.
It also adopted programs that ensure efficient
rice distribution. The President has ordered maximum vigilance over
the government’s rice stock to avoid rice hoarding and diversion.
Agriculture agreement
Philippine Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and
Secretary Schaefer signed the Framework Agreement of Cooperation on
Agriculture and Related Fields, in behalf of their respective
countries. Mrs. Arroyo witnessed the signing.
The framework agreement covers sanitary and
phytosanitary measures, which would pave the way for greater exports
of tropical fruits from the Philippines to the US, the country’s
biggest trading partner.
Other areas of cooperation include
biotechnology, to cover adverse climate-tolerant seeds for rice and
support for livestock improvement programs.
The agreement also covers cooperation on support
for irrigation infrastructure works and capacity- building of
agricultural extension personnel.
Training and technical exchanges between the US
and the Philippines will be enhanced by the agreement, with local
government units and Philippine colleges and universities benefiting
from the initiative.
Bush messages
President Bush also conveyed to Mrs. Arroyo his
“deep condolences” to the relatives of the victims of the MV
Princess of the Stars.
He said the US was sending the aircraft carrier
USS Ronald Reagan, along with other US Navy assets, to Sibuyan to
help in the retrieval operations. (See related story A2.)
The two leaders had a 35-minute meeting in the
Oval Office and addressed the waiting media representatives
afterwards.
Bush congratulated Mrs. Arroyo on her strong
position against terrorism, which the Philippine government is
pursuing in tandem with a “vision of peace.”
She responded, saying, “We stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States in our efforts to
establish a progressive Philippines, the torch of democracy in
Asia.”
“We are in Washington today to discuss with
President Bush, the officials of his administration, and the leaders
of Congress matters of mutual importance and concern, like food
security, defense cooperation and economic development,” she said.
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