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By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter
Senator Loren Legarda warned Sunday of social
unrest and political instability if the price of rice, now on a
34-year high, continues to surge.
Another senator, Mar Roxas 2nd, is also
concerned about rice supply, saying the Arroyo government is in
denial about the rice crisis. Like Legarda, he is proposing several
measures to address the problem.
Legarda said, “Rice is an extremely sensitive
political commodity. There is no question a big surge in the
staple’s price is bound to spur social unrest and political
instability going forward.”
Legarda, chairman of the Senate Committee on
Economic Affairs, said the Philippines set off the big surge by
awarding a tender for rice at $708 per metric ton or about P30 a
kilo, up nearly 50 percent from the price it paid in late January.
The Department of Agriculture earlier
acknowledged that rice retail prices rose at least P3 per kilo
versus a year ago, and some of the rice supplied by the National
Food Authority was being repacked by unscrupulous traders and sold
at much higher prices in the open market as commercial rice.
If the Philippines remains a major rice importer
in the years ahead, rice prices will double or triple because of
severe shortages—just like what is now happening as a result of
the surge in oil prices—and cause “considerable suffering” to
the people, Legarda said.
“But of course, oil and rice are totally
different commodities,” she added. “We can ask people to try to
consume less oil, and they may cooperate. But we can’t ask people
to consume less rice without inviting trouble.”
Legarda said that as early as 2004, there were
already telltale signs of an imminent global rice shortage, but
“the government failed to heed [the warnings] right away.” She
said these signs included the decision of Thailand, the world’s
biggest rice exporter, to rigorously control foreign sales to secure
its own needs; China’s importation of rice to meet local shortage,
and the decline in rice production growth in Asia from 2.7 percent
in the 1970s to just 1.1 percent in recent years.
“The recent decision of Vietnam and India to
stop foreign sales to assure their own needs has aggravated the
shortage, and increased the upward pressure on prices,” she added.
Vietnam and India are two of the world’s three
biggest rice exporters.
She cited the efforts of the government to
moderate increases locally by spending billions of pesos in annual
subsidies.
The National Food Authority has been incurring
massive financial losses because of the subsidies, which essentially
mean it has been buying rice at market prices, then reselling the
grain here at a loss.
But Legarda warned that the annual subsidies
“are not sustainable, not when rice prices are as high as they are
overseas.” The Philippines consumes yearly some 11.9 million
metric tons of rice, of which about 92 percent is produced locally.
Alternatives suggested
She urged the government to push new strategies
to achieve self-sufficiency in the staple in 24 to 36 months, which
she described as “achievable.”
She proposed that the government make extensive
use of the funds from the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization
Program, which has an annual budget of P17 billion, and the
Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, which had a cash
balance of P6 billion as of December.
“These funds can be tapped to enable rice
farmers to achieve greater productivity via exceptionally potent
seeds, greatly improved irrigation, or with adequate
water-impounding structures and other drought-mitigating
measures,” Legarda said.
She added that the funds can also be used to
build post-harvest facilities, so as to curb extensive losses caused
by inefficient rice processing, particularly in the drying, milling
and storage stages.
“The billions of pesos should now be used, at
least temporarily anyway, primarily to consciously enlarge rice
production, instead of supporting an assortment of agricultural
activities with a few millions here and a few millions there,”
Legarda said.
Get real–Roxas
In a press statement Sunday, Senator Roxas,
chairman of the Senate Committee on Trade and Commerce, rebuked the
government for downplaying the rice crisis.
“Mrs. President, be a force for good by
getting real,” he said, adding, “the government is in denial”
about the crisis.
Convening a food summit, as was suggested
earlier, is not a solution, he said. “The oil summit came and
went, and we are stuck with even higher prices of oil with no relief
in sight. Now, we have a food summit that would once again raise
people’s expectations for a day or two.”
Instead, Roxas is recommending four immediate
measures.
First, authorities should immediately release
the local government unit (LGU) calamity funds to help farmers buy
seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. That will help ensure the next
harvest is as plentiful as possible, Roxas explained. Second, he
added, local governments should be directed to establish a food
security, early-warning mechanism, particularly in the barangay or
villages, to ensure targeted distribution of rice especially to
children and the elderly.
Third, government should reactivate the peace
process in insurgency areas to allow the unimpeded cultivation,
planting, tending and harvesting of crops in conflict areas.
Lastly, the government should create special
investigative and prosecutorial teams to run after hoarders,
profiteers and members of the rice cartel as well as the corrupt
elements in the National Food Authority who have diverted the
precious rice stocks from public outlets to private stores.
“These are measures that can be done
immediately in partnership with Congress and the LGUs,” Roxas
said. “For the long-term, the DA [Department of Agriculture] must
step up its programs to aid our farmers and build a more efficient
logistical supply chain that is not driven by middlemen.”
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