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By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter
Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. blamed Malacañang
for a supposedly looming food crisis, which, he said, could have
been averted had the government used a P720-million fertilizer fund
properly in 2004.
Villar on Monday told a press conference that
they could now see in the reported rice shortage in parts of the
country the ill effects of Malacañang’s lack of cooperation with
the Senate in the investigation of an alleged scam that caused
dissipation of the P720-million fund.
The amount, supposedly for the purchase of
fertilizers, was used instead to buy overpriced and virtually
useless chemicals as shown in a Senate inquiry.
Former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn
“Joc-Joc” Bolante, the project head, has been hiding and has
avoided clarifying his role in the fertilizer scam.
“If there is low rice production now, one of
the reasons are the missing fertilizers,” Villar said.
Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas 2nd said rice
traders are deepening the supposed rice crisis by rebagging the
cheap rice from the National Food Authority (NFA) and selling it as
commercial rice. Rice from the agency should cost only P18 a kilo
but Roxas said no rice is now available at that price.
“The NFA is supposed to help impoverished
citizens but the black markets get a big run of their money,”
Roxas added.
He predicted that the rice crisis will worsen
after October since there is a two-month deficit supply of rice for
consumption.
“Where will we get our supply from?” Roxas
asked. “We cannot depend anymore on other country’s exports.
India will be consuming for itself.”
He lashed out at the proposal to solve the
crisis by limiting the people’s food intake.
“Whoever suggested that must have been
well-off because the only problem rich people have is they are fat.
But for the poor who only eat rice, soy sauce and salt, that’s all
they [will] ever have. How much more if they have to limit their
rice intake?” Roxas asked.
He proposed that the national government release
the calamity fund for local governments so they can make sure that
they will not run out of supplies. He also called for new, more
effective programs for agriculture, build more irrigation systems
and farm-to-market roads, and stop converting farms into residential
and commercial lots.
Food shortage in the country had been assured by
the unabated influx of imported agricultural products, according to
AGAP party-list Rep. Nicanor Briones. As a result, he said, the
Philippines will have to rely on imported goods in 10 to 20 years.
By the time, he added, producers will have abandoned rice farming
and raising livestock.
The allegedly rampant smuggling, Briones said,
is tolerated by inept and corrupt officials of the Bureau of Customs
also allegedly in connivance with smugglers bringing in agricultural
products untaxed.
He has filed House Bill 3110 and Quezon Rep.
Lorenzo Tañada 3rd House Bill 15 to curb the unchecked smuggling.
Briones said many backyard hog and poultry
raisers who contribute as much as 70 percent of the swine and
chicken supplies to the market have shifted to other businesses.
He added that companies engaged in hog and
chicken production are cutting down on their production.
Briones had sought investigation of the alleged
smuggling of agricultural products through House Resolution 308.
Information gathered by his group, Briones said,
showed that the smuggling of agricultural products is unabated in
free ports, such as Clark and Subic, and in major Philippine ports,
such as the North Harbor and South Harbor in Manila, and in Cebu and
Batangas.
Bracing for ‘crisis’
In the Bicol Region, the provincial government
of Albay is apparently bracing for the food crisis. It is set to
release this week a P21.5-million rice loan to 15 towns and three
cities as seed capital of local governments to operate National Food
Authority outlets in Legazpi City.
Gov. Joey Salceda of Albay told The Manila Times
that this fund will be used by the local units to subsidize rice
from the food authority to ensure cheap rice and access to it by
poor families. He said the P21.5-million credit line at zero
interest is payable in six months.
Salceda said the rice shortage in the province
had been caused by floods, landslides and lack of supply. He added
that climate change had also adversely affected agricultural
production in the region, especially that of rice.
Rice shortages have also been reported in
neighboring Camarines Sur and Sorsogon provinces.
At this writing, at least 260 bags of rice from
Vietnam that will augment stock of the National Food Authority were
being unloaded at the Tabaco City International Seaport.
In Cavite province near Manila, the food
authority has stepped up its drive against merchants using various
tricks to sell otherwise cheaper government-subsidized rice at much
higher prices.
Jaime Hadlocon, the agency’s assistant manager
there, told The Times that he has deputized additional inspectors,
leading to the recent arrest of some retailers in Dasmariñas and
Silang towns and Cavite City for selling government rice at P27 to
P29 per kilo instead of its subsidized price of P18.25 a kilo. These
traders face fines of at least P2,000, suspension for months of
their permit to sell rice, or perpetual disqualification from
getting allocations from the food authority.
Hadlocon said that among the “dirty tricks”
used by crooked merchants are hoarding, mixing government rice with
commercial rice, passing off government rice as commercial rice, and
filling empty sacks of commercial brands with government rice.
Despite such tricks, he added, there will be no
rice shortage in Cavite because he makes sure that there are 30,000
bags of rice (good for 45 days) in their provincial warehouse.
Hadlocon said the food supply is beset with
serious problems, such as unpredictable changes in climate causing
damages to crops, high price of imports, protective trade policies
of supplying countries, rising prices of fertilizers, insufficient
irrigation, few farm-to-market roads, conversion of agricultural
areas to housing subdivisions, and raising crops for use not as food
but as sources of alternative fuel.
He cited the agency’s studies showing that
daily wastage in rice amounts to 25,000 sacks, or P22-million worth
of rice, and that it takes 5,000 liters of water to produce just one
kilo of rice. Hadlocon said food experts also feared that by 2010,
one kilo of rice might cost more than one liter of oil.
-- With Sammy Martin, Rhaydz B. Barcia and Rogelio Limpin
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