The militant farmers belonging to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) on Tuesday rejected Sen. Edgardo Angara’s proposal to privatize the National Food Authority (NFA) owing to the agency’s failure to address the rice crisis.

KMP chairman Rafael Mariano, concurrent president of the party-list group Anakpawis, said Angara’s so-called solution to the rice crisis will only make matters worse. 

“By lessening the powers of the NFA, Senator Angara is serving the whole rice industry on a silver platter to the rice cartel,” he said.

According to Mariano, the privatization of the agency will only strengthen the rice cartel’s power to dictate the price of rice in the market. 

“What needs to be done is to strengthen the NFA so that it can compete with the rice cartel and have more supply than the cartel.  Its procurement level should be increased by at least 25 percent but to date, only 1 percent of total palay production is procured by the NFA,” Mariano said.

Mariano added that privatizing the NFA will only cause the price of staple food to shoot sky-high, thus giving the cartel absolute power to manipulate the supply and price in the market.

“We have long been saying that the immediate solution to this crisis is the imposition of rice-price controls, the increased palay procurement of NFA to at least 25 percent and the abolition of the rice cartel, if not, then we will endure this crisis for long way to come,” Mariano said.

In a privilege speech at the Senate, Angara, among other things, prodded the government to revamp the NFA, suggesting that the rice-trading functions of the NFA should be given to the private sector and limit the NFA to implement the rice-and corn-subsidy program so we can utilize the huge public funds spent by the NFA in importation and trading to support the targeted rice-aid program.

“In a 2007 review of NFA’s operations, its projected accumulated losses in 2007 amounted to P48 billion, while its outstanding loans is around P69 billion. Discounting the current rice crisis it currently mitigates, the review calculated that if NFA continues to operate as is, by 2010 its accumulated losses will hit P111 billion and its outstanding loans will reach P136 billion,” he said.

In his privilege speech, Angara asked Malacañang to adopt six “practical steps” to solve the rice crisis, including measures improving irrigation systems, credit, postharvest facilities, seeds, rice trading and safety nets for the poor.

Angara suggested that government funding and personnel should be concentrated this year on the 1.4 million hectares of irrigated land.

“Full support to the farmers in terms of credit and drying facilities should be provided to farmers in the irrigated areas,” he said.

Angara also recommended the mobilization of rural banks and thrift banks within the rice-production area, pointing out that the LandBank, the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Department of Agriculture should provide financing to them for lending to rice farmers without delay, in advance of the wet planting season beginning September.

WITH barely two months left to decide on the fate of the Comprehensive Agrarian-Reform Program (CARP), agrarian-reform advocates warned that hunger and poverty may worsen should Congress fail to pass a bill funding the program’s extension for another 5 to 10 years.

IF the country seems to be running out of economic steam due to the global growth slowdown and soaring commodity prices, the Philippines, like many other developing countries, still has an ace to play in global trade, according to the United Nations Trade and Development (Unctad).

AS the Senate resumed its sessions Monday, independent think tank IBON Foundation again urged senators to reject the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa), saying that the P365 billion in investments that the deal will supposedly bring is too high a price to pay for the death of the local manufacturing sector.

THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced the appointment of a new country director for its Philippine Country office this month.

The militant farmers belonging to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) on Tuesday rejected Sen. Edgardo Angara’s proposal to privatize the National Food Authority (NFA) owing to the agency’s failure to address the rice crisis.

THE Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) on Friday convened industry stakeholders and other government agencies in crafting a National Land Transport Policy Framework (NLTPF).

DAVAO CITY—Philippine Airlines would add another Airbus flight to this city beginning Thursday to decongest the volume of traffic in this route that has built up since the Holy Week holidays.