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THE head
of Caritas Manila Wednesday rejected the Arroyo
administration’s plan to withdraw rice being sold by the
National Food Authority (NFA) from public markets,
saying the Church would not be able to take the sole
responsibility of distributing the staple to the poor.
“The
more it is made available, the better,” Fr. Anton
Pascual, Caritas executive director, said in an
interview.
At the
same time, some rice-producing local governments are
mulling over a P2 to P5 subsidy for the NFA’s buying
price for palay in select areas to help deter hoarding
by private traders, the League of Provinces of the
Philippines (LPP) said Wednesday.
The LPP
also presented a resolution to President Arroyo Tuesday
night, asserting that there are “sufficient rice stocks”
in the country that will remain “adequate” for the rest
of the year.
“What we
want to achieve is to prevent traders from cornering the
palay and hoarding it . . . .That is one of the options
that local government units [LGUs] may take to bypass
traders and go direct to the farmers,” said Eastern
Samar Gov. Ben Evardone, the LPP secretary-general, when
asked about the possible LGU subsidy.
Meanwhile, Sen. Mar Roxas II recommended that the
government expand the food-for-work program where poor
families are harnessed to help in their communities, in
exchange for a stable supply of food.
This
suggestion jibes with the earlier proposal of the
Washington-based International Food Policy Research
Institute (Ifpri) that developing countries should adopt
social-protection programs, including safety nets like
food or income transfers and nutrition programs for both
urban and rural populations, among short-term solutions
to the growing food problem.
In order
to ensure abundant domestic harvest, Roxas also
suggested that the government immediately stop all
conversions of irrigated land and investigate how much
money the government spent on irrigation for these
converted lands.
He
proposed that the government ensure that all of the farm
inputs necessary—seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, among
others—are quickly made available to farmers; including
the installation of small water-impounding irrigation
systems, which costs only about P30,000 a hectare,
instead of large-scale irrigation through dams that
costs P100,000 a hectare.
Opening
the Agusan and Lanao marsh areas for planting is an
option, said Roxas, as these are ideal for planting
rice, similar to the Vietnamese river delta basin.
He wants
the government to invest in eliminating wastage in the
drying of rice, estimated at 30 percent of annual
consumption, and more than enough to cover the NFA’s
importation of 2 million metric tons of rice, or 17
percent of annual consumption.
The
Department of Agriculture (DA) earlier announced it is
pulling out NFA rice from public markets and will
redirect distribution to barangay centers and parishes
to ensure there is enough supply for poor families.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said rice being sold in
public markets is disadvantageous to the poor since
those who have the money could buy more of the product,
causing supply shortage in some areas.
But
Caritas’s Fr. Pascual said this measure might only make
matters worse than they seem, since it may create false
speculations and animosity among the people.
“What is
important is the distribution process. Through this
[pullout], there’ll be more false speculations and
animosity, and it will appear that there is really a
crisis,” said Pascual.
Besides,
the NFA distributes rice in parishes only three times a
week and this would not be enough to cover demands,
according to the Caritas chief.
“Our
work is to identify those who come from poor families
through our mappings,” added Pascual.
The
government tapped the Roman Catholic Church this month
to help distribute cheap rice to the poor after some
retailers were found to be hoarding the product.
Pascual
noted that stores based inside parishes would not be
able to carry on the work of retailers and that the job
is too overwhelming for Church volunteers.
Starting
from the Archdiocese of Manila, the “Bigasan sa Parokya”
project is now expanded to include the dioceses of
Caloocan, Parañaque, Novaliches, Cubao and Pasig.
Pascual
said negotiations are now being worked out to include
canned goods, vegetables, sugar and other basic
commodities in Church-based stores.
Asked
how much the subsidy can be, Governor Evardone said it
can range from P2 to P5 to make it attractive to rice
farmers.
He
clarified that the plan will be carried out on a
“case-to-case basis because we cannot implement it
nationwide” and that other factors will be considered,
including its possible effect on rice prices.
Evardone
said it might be considered in areas where the NFA
“cannot compete with the traders so LGUs will try to
support the NFA.”
He said
Mindoro Occidental has already implemented a similar
scheme, to match the buying price offered by private
traders, while Marinduque has allocated P1 million for
it.
He said
the LPP raised the plan to President Arroyo on Tuesday
night, and she welcomed it as an option to mitigate the
rice problem.
In its
resolution, the LPP asserted there are “sufficient rice
stocks in the country”—now at 1.94 million metric tons (MMT),
higher than the 1.52 MMT in the same period last year.
“Supply
will remain adequate this year as palay harvests are
projected to reach 7.1 MMT this summer cropping plus
over 10 MMT more in the wet cropping—or a record-busting
output of more than 17 MMT for 2008,” the LPP said.
In the
resolution, the LPP pledged to help the DA in preventing
rice hoarding in the provinces through the “aggressive
monitoring of unscrupulous traders in their respective
localities and assisting the NFA in its palay-buying
operations, in order to better protect our consumers and
farmers alike.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Presidential Spokesman Anthony Golez
said the food supply situation in the country is normal,
and that “hoarders or shameless business opportunists
are on the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] watch
list to make sure they will not take advantage of the
situation, sabotaging the activities of the government.”
The
Chief Executive made her second visit to the Bureau of
Customs (BOC) on Wednesday since Monday to follow up on
the charges she had ordered filed against Rubills
International Inc., the importer of smuggled flour
seized by Customs officials; and administrative charges
against Customs employees allegedly involved in the
crime.
Roxas
advised Malacañang officials to come up with clear
solutions to address the insufficient domestic
production of rice “rather than be focused on political
considerations that do not provide any real help to the
people.”
“The
government is on the wrong track in adopting the tingi
[retail] approach to our rice problem. This is a
production and supply problem, and so, we must address
its root causes and not just the symptoms. If the
problem is a lack of rice, then solutions should focus
increasing yield,” Roxas said.
“I see
summits and lots of photo-ops, but I don’t see
substantive programs… [on] how we can produce more
rice,” he added.
At the
same time, the senator cautioned the Arroyo
administration to reconsider plans to issue rice-access
cards unless there is a competent system in place and
clear guidelines to be followed by local officials and
the NFA, to avoid confusion and politicizing the
process. |
