|
LIKE a
scene in some romantic classic, a National Food
Authority (NFA) laborer approached a woman in here early
20s, whose halter blouse emphasized the soft tone of her
exposed shoulder, and offered to hand her coupon to the
security guard manning the rationing of the three-kilo
pack of government rice.
His
ulterior motive was revealed when he asked for the
woman’s name and cellular-telephone number.
The
woman had a ready reaction to the anticipated situation.
It was about noon, she said, and she had to line up in
the afternoon again. Her husband, a tricycle driver,
strives to earn at least P150 rice money for the day.
“We never thought it was going to be like this. My
husband had to double his effort,” she said.
Tomas
Escares, NFA spokesman, said the running rice-crisis
drama, which is a wake-up call to the industry players,
“had also generated light stories fit for a novel.”
Escarez
admitted that the present rice-supply situation brought
about by the global crunch had changed the lifestyles of
many people.
The
tricycle-driver husband of that attractive young wife
and many other urban dwellers in Nueva Ecija, a leading
rice-producing province, and elsewhere in the country
would admit they have to double their efforts these days
to raise money for the next day’s limited-rice
allocation.
“We have
to take advantage while the P18.25-per-kilo rice is
still available. Officials said it is about to be
depleted and replaced by the P25-a-kilo variety,” said
Patrick Sison, 34, tricycle driver, of Barrera District,
Cabanatuan City.
Mike
Santiago, a part-time construction worker, has to get up
early for work as his pay is based on the number of
hours he put in. He would stop working after 6 in the
afternoon and set aside half of his P400 earning for the
NFA rice and food the next day. The other P200 would be
spent for other things, including his regular supply of
cheap local brandy.
Edna
Aguilar, an NFA-accredited retailer, said it is only
these days that people go to subsidized rice outlets.
“They used to belittle NFA rice,” she said. She wished
that her 70-bag weekly allocation be doubled to prevent
people from panicking.
Some
retailers said they are happy in seeing that the NFA
rice reaches the poor consumers directly, short of
admitting that there was really stock diversion. “They
say it is only now that they feel their involvement and
their social responsibility,” said Gonzalo Santiago, an
NFA employee tasked to escort the delivery of rice
allocations to Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija, retailers.
Escarez
said: “It is the right time for the NFA to be true to
its role in flooding the market with the subsidized rice
when the commercial price is high and buy the palay from
farmers at the price that could help them get the just
return of their investments.”
The
erstwhile quiet compound of the NFA-Nueva Ecija buzzed
with activity since manager Edelino Alejandro opened the
rice-selling outlet at the farmer’s shed.
For
three weeks now, all personnel of the NFA branch—from
Alejandro to utilitymen to security guards—have been
busy as the gate guard begins to prepare the list of
buyers as early as
7 a.m.
“The
happiest these days are the rice farmers because of the
increase of the government unmilled rice price from P11
to P17 per kilogram,” said Escarez.
Farmers
Mely Nagayo, Demetrio Cudal and Guillermo Tamunda, of
General Llanera, Nueva Ecija, confirmed Escarez’s
statement.
“What
worries us, though, is that the cost of farm inputs
might follow the trend and the agricultural stores will
also increase their prices by the next farming season,”
said Nagayo.
Tamunda
said, the farmers had inched closer to their
competitor-traders with the P17-a-kilo NFA palay-buying
price. After the announcement last week, the prevailing
price set by Nueva Ecija rice traders was placed at an
average of P19. |
