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MANILA: Senior Philippine officials on Saturday expressed concern
about the plan for a Southeast Asian rice cartel, saying it would
cause greater problems than it would solve amid a global food
crisis.
The so-called Organization of Rice-Exporting
Countries (OREC) is “anti-poor and will only exacerbate hunger and
poverty rather than ease it,” Senate Majority Leader Francis
Pangilinan said in a statement. “They have to think twice for
humanitarian reasons.”
Modelled on the oil cartel of the Organization
of Petroleum-Exporting Countries (OPEC), OREC would comprise Mekong
countries and rice-producing countries Vietnam,Thailand, Myanmar,
Laos, and Cambodia.
The proposed OREC members are also members of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), along with the
Philippine — one of the world’s biggest rice importers.
Sen. Manuel Roxas 2nd , chairman of the trade
and commerce committee, called on the Department of Foreign Affairs
to formally propose an ASEAN Leaders’ Summit on Rice and Food
Security in light of the OREC proposal.
Roxas said in a statement that failure by ASEAN
members to unite in efforts to build food security would “raise
doubts in the minds of other world leaders on ASEAN’s
determination to pursue economic integration.”
“Before OREC is institutionalized, the ASEAN
community must weigh in as a regional bloc to obtain trade
privileges with its fellow members in keeping with the ASEAN
spirit,” he added.
Surge rice prices in the Philippines has
prompted the government to impose tighter control on the provision
of state-subsidized rice to make sure the country’s poor do not go
hungry, Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said also on
Saturday.
“The government will pull out subsidized rice
from public markets in the middle of May with the full
implementation of the family access card system,” Cabral added.
She told local radio the supply of National Food
Authority (NFA) rice, which sells for P18.25 per kilo, would only be
available in NFA distribution outlets and parishes. The food agency
would also set up 1,000 rolling stores in slum communities, where
millions of poor people live.
Cabral said at least 700,000 poor families, or
some 3.5 million people, in the premier region Metro Manila are
expected to be given the family access cards.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the P18.25
per kilo rice will be replaced by P25 ($0.6 dollar) per kilo rice in
the market once the government-subsidized rice has been fully
withdrawn from public markets.
A survey covering more than 12 million people
living in Metro Manila is being conducted to determine who are
qualified to receive the rice access cards.
Growing concerns over soaring food prices which
threaten to push millions deeper into poverty overshadowed the start
of the Asian Development Bank annual meeting in Madrid also on
Saturday.
Bank director general Rajat Nag said the surging
cost of food affects one billion poor in Asia who spend a lot of
their wages on food.
The benchmark Thai variety was priced last
Wednesday at $998 per ton for export, up from 512 dollars a ton in
January this year, the Thai Rice Exporters Association said in a
price survey.
-- AFP and Xinhua
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