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AS some
traders are suspected of cornering cheap government rice
in Nueva Ecija, erstwhile rice granary of the
Philippines, Malacañang
Sunday parried allegations the rice crisis is due to the
Arroyo administration’s negligence and mismanagement.
The main
argument of the Palace, as elaborated on by Press
Secretary Ignacio Bunye, is that the rice crisis is
worldwide and especially exacerbated by the drought in
Australia.
Observers from the opposition, however, demur, saying
that may be so, but Filipinos are not concerned with
other countries’ woes because there are a number of
things the government could have focused on to reduce
the need, if not totally erase, the need for importing
rice—such as better use of irrigation systems,
provision of postproduction infrastructure to
drastically reduce the estimated 20 percent of harvests
lost and discouraging if not totally banning conversion
of farmlands to commercial and industrial uses.
On
irrigation, Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati, also
president of the United Opposition, proposed that
irrigation become the responsibility of local government
units (LGUs) for better efficiency.
The
suggestion came on the heels of the news report that
some 1.7 million hectares of farmland remain without
irrigation. In the same report, the National Irrigation
Administration (NIA) also said it would take billions of
pesos to provide irrigation to all the affected areas.
This,
according to Binay, would be more costly and less
effective than the small water-impounding projects as
shown by past experience, and which LGUs can better
develop with the farmers.
Devolving the function of irrigation to the LGUs would
effectively cut not just costs, but even time in
completing the projects, he added. He likewise proposed
that the billions to be spent by the NIA be apportioned
instead to the different LGUs that have agricultural
land.
When
asked whether he believed there really is a rice
shortage, Binay said: “If we don’t have one now, we will
in the very near future unless we change the system and
policies governing land use.” Earlier, he had proposed a
moratorium on the transformation of agricultural lands
to subdivisions or golf courses.
Be that
as it may, Bunye insists the Philippines remains among
the “best prepared” in the world to deal with the
situation effectively, and as he writes in his column,
“The View from the Palace,” he noted, “Recent coverage
in international publications support what we have been
saying all along: the rice problem is not unique to the
Philippines; nor is it attributable to the President as
her critics would want the public to believe.”
He
pointed to Australia, the largest rice exporter in the
world until drought struck the big island, cited in the
recent series of stories in the New York Times, which
looked into soaring food costs across the globe and
identified the collapse of Australia’s rice production
as among the factors that led to the spike in rice
prices worldwide.
“Australian farmers who have been adversely affected
have resorted to abandoning rice as a crop and shifting
to those which are less water-dependent, to the
detriment of countries which rely on rice as a staple
food,” added Bunye.
Bunye
advised local critics to also consider the food-security
situation abroad so they can have a better understanding
of the problem the government is facing on the domestic
front.
On the
problem of hoarding and diversion to commercial traders
of subsidized rice, only four Nueva Ecija retailers—one
of them, Susan Fajardo of Palayan City, allegedly a
relative of presidential deputy spokesman Lorelie
Fajardo—were reported caught in the numerous raids the
National Food Authority (NFA) said it conducted.
The four
were suspected of violating Presidential Decree 4, the
law that created the National Grains Authority which
later evolved into the NFA. The NFA Nueva Ecija manager,
Edelino Alejandro, said the offenders were “admonished
politely and were subjected to due process.” M.
Gonzalez, C. Marquez Jr. |
