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SENATORS and congressmen have been expressing their
concern over the spiraling price of rice, now at its highest in the
last 34 years. They are all championing the cause of consumers, who
are now paying more for the staple grain which the people’s
representatives believe is now getting scarce. I hope that they
could show equal concern for the welfare of farmers, the producers
of rice.
Rice farmers suffer whether there
is scarcity of the golden grain or not. In fact, they benefit only a
little from the current high price of rice because they sell their
palay after harvest—and palay is a buyer’s market. Normally, it
is the seller who determines the price of his goods. In the case of
palay, the traders dictate the price and the farmers are helpless.
The National Food Authority does buy palay at subsidized price but
it can buy only 10 to 15 percent of the total produce.
Higher palay production does not
necessarily mean a proportional increase in income for farmers
because traders usually buy cheaper when there is a bumper crop. And
since farmers sell most of their produce after harvest, they end up
buying rice for their consumption later. Thus, they are victims
twice over. If you ask me, they deserve more protection and concern
than the usual consumers who suffer only in periods of scarcity.
Going back to the problem of
scarcity of rice, Sen. Migz Zubiri said that this is a result of
global warming and the conversion of agricultural land. He said that
global warming was evident in the heavy rainfall, flooding and
drought that had beset top rice-producing provinces. In a recent
trip to Libon, Albay, a rice granary in the Bicol Region, Migz
learned that all its expected harvest for the coming months had been
wiped out due to the unusually heavy rainfall and massive floodings.
“The climate has gone haywire
and our crops are indeed in peril. Maybe it’s rice now, but
another crop would soon have the same fate if global warming
continues,” he warned.
The conversion of agricultural
land to industrial zones, golf courses, residential subdivisions and
shopping malls has been going on since the ‘80s. What made matters
worse was that even fully irrigated lands were so converted. The
high cost of irrigation should be well worth it because it enables
farmers to have two or even three crops instead of only one. All
that public expense for irrigation goes to waste when the
agricultural land is converted to residential and other uses. Migz
said that this problem of land conversion could be alleviated with
the enactment of a National Land Use Policy.
More on ‘politics,
religion’
Pres Ordinario of Alameda,
California, emailed this comment on my column on “Politics and
Religion”: “While the Philippines is the only Christian country
in Asia, there are actually few ‘Christians’ but many
hypocrites, particularly the rich [and famous] and the politicians.
Too much religion, not much Christianity. Puro porma, walang
substance. While they can justify or deny their acts before the
people, I wonder if they can do so to the ‘person facing them in
the mirror’ or to HIM who knows everything.”
Pres, who hails from Rosales,
Pangasinan, also complained against the “shameful” actuations of
some customs officers. He said that he and his wife were at the NAIA
for their flight back to California when a customs officer asked
them for coffee money, all the while scrutinizing their passports
like how one shuffles a deck of cards. A similar request for coffee
money was made of his relative who had left earlier, although his
relative made this cutting remark: “Ang init-init ho, magka-kape
kayo?”
“The government relies so much
on tourism to earn more dollars, yet here are some unscrupulous
employees sounding like beggars in asking for ‘loose change’
from travelers. Nakakahiya,” Pres moaned.
Loren most-trusted leader
Kudos to Sen. Loren Legarda for
emerging for the nth time as the most trustworthy Filipino public
figure in Pulse Asia’s “Ulat ng Bayan” for March 2008. She got
a trust rating of 76 percent in the nationwide survey conducted from
Feb. 21 to March 8.
“To be trusted by the people is
the ultimate accolade a public servant can ever hope for. No elected
or even appointive government official can carry on with his or her
responsibilities if he or she had lost the trust of the people,”
she said of the survey results.
Following Legarda in the Pulse
Asia survey were Chiz Escudero (74%), Mar Roxas (67%), Panfilo
Lacson (61%), Manny Villar (58%), Noli de Castro (49%), former
President Joseph Estrada (47%), Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati (43%),
and Rodolfo Lozada (42%).
efrendanao2003@yahoo.com
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