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THE food
supply situation in the Philippines would not
deteriorate to the point of mass starvation and social
unrest, as the government has been moving to protect the
country’s food security, Palace officials said Monday.
Deputy
Presidential Spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo was responding
to the statement of International Monetary Fund (IMF)
managing director Dominique Strauss Kahn that rising
food prices in countries like the Philippines could lead
to social unrest.
Fajardo
said that while the IMF warning is a “cause for serious
concern,” it would be best if such sentiments are viewed
with caution, apparently referring to insinuations that
the Philippines, like Haiti and Egypt, is on the brink
of social unrest not only because of rising food prices
but also due to alleged shortages.
The
inclusion of the
Philippines
in the list of countries with potential
food-lack-induced unrest was apparently triggered by
photos of rice queues since the state’s National Food
Authority (NFA) started flooding the market with cheaper
rice to give people some respite from high rice prices.
The
queues for lower-priced rice could create the impression
of a rice supply crisis—even when, in fact, there is
none, said Jaime Juan, NFA manager in Zambales, on
Monday, as another shipment of rice from Vietnam was
unloaded at Subic over the weekend.
Juan,
who supervised the unloading of 395,000 bags of
Vietnamese rice from the bulk carrier MV Morning Star,
said there is enough supply of commercial rice in the
country.
“It’s
just that the focus right now is on the [commercial]
price, which is higher compared with NFA rice,” he said.
Juan
explained that the NFA, which imports rice mainly from
Thailand and Vietnam, maintains its retail price at
P18.25 per kilo, the release price approved by the
government.
“There
is really no rice supply crisis,” Juan said. “If you go
to the market, you can see that there is plenty of
commercial rice available. But since the NFA rice is
cheap, it is only natural that people would flock to the
NFA stalls,” he added.
According to Juan, the NFA needs to import at least 2.1
million metric tons (MMT) of rice this year in order to
augment the country’s supply, even as total rice
production this year is expected to reach 18.5 MMT from
last year’s 16.24 MMT.
This
year’s projected importation is 300,000 metric tons more
than the 1.8 MMT recorded in 2007.
To date,
Juan said the NFA has imported 1.2 MMT, while the
remaining 900,000 to be sourced from other
rice-producing countries have been scheduled for
bidding.
Besides
Subic, imported rice is also being offloaded in the
ports of
Manila,
Cebu and Davao.
Aside
from MV Morning Star, two other ships were scheduled
over the weekend to bring in rice from
Vietnam.
These were MV Saigon 5, with additional 300,000 bags,
and MV Harpoon with 120,000 bags.
In
related developments, Senate President Manuel Villar Jr.
opted Monday for a multiyear budget approach for
agriculture projects, particularly those that directly
affect the food security of the country.
He
explained that in order to have predictability on
sources of funds, multiyear budgeting should be applied,
for instance, on projects like irrigation systems which
take years to finish. “The handicap of single-year
funding for project is that it is prone to disruption,
endangering the country’s food security.”
Villar
acknowledged, however, that because the Constitution
calls for annual appropriations and forbids the
legislation of multiyear national budgets, the
compromise solution is for the Executive to convey to
Congress the three-year financing requirements of
agricultural projects.
“We must
have a longer planning horizon because to work around
365-day cycles is too limiting and does not give us much
elbow room,” he said.
Villar
prodded Executive officials to submit to Congress a
medium-term expenditure framework for the agriculture
sector “so we will know in advance what projects must be
funded and should be guaranteed.”
At the
House of Representatives, Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino
(Kampi) Rep. Thomas Dumpit Jr. of La Union pushed a bill
to grant President Arroyo emergency powers to
immediately and effectively address the rice crisis.
In House
Bill 512, Dumpit said the urgency of the situation
requires drastic measures.
Dumpit
cited reports of diversion of the subsidized rice from
the NFA to the retail market by unscrupulous traders and
hoarding of rice by the powerful rice cartels.
However,
another legislator played down claims that the
continuing food problems in the country could lead to
riots, describing it as “an alien concept” that cannot
be imported here.
Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Abraham Mitra of
Palawan, chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture
and Food, said Filipinos are mature enough not to engage
in such scenario.
“Filipinos are mature enough to know that you can’t cook
rice by burning the rice warehouse down. Any farmer will
tell you that mayhem has never been a rice production
input. All the shouting will not make rice sprout on
the streets,” said Mitra. (M. Gonzalez, B. Fernandez, H.
Empeño, F. Marasigan, V. Parce) |
