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ANY move
to change the mandate of the National Food Authority (NFA)
in the midst of the rice crisis could only worsen the
situation for both the consuming public and the
government, Malacañang was warned on Monday.
Sen.
Francis Escudero issued the advice a day after President
Arroyo told the Wall Street Journal that she was
“considering rolling back the government’s direct role
in subsidizing expensive rice imports.”
According to Mrs. Arroyo, if rice prices stayed high,
the NFA’s mandate might eventually be changed to allow
the private sector to import more rice.
But
Escudero wants to dissuade the President from
implementing the plan at this time, saying it could only
exacerbate the skyrocketing rice prices the public is
already experiencing. “I hope Mrs. Arroyo is not
thinking of implementing this change in the middle of
the crisis. The timing is very bad. Even with a
subsidized current NFA rice price, the public still
cringes with the high prices of the daily staple.”
“If you
hastily forfeit the subsidy being given by the NFA now,
the public will experience a double price shock.
Changing the mandate in the middle of a [yet-to-be
resolved] problem is like a captain abandoning his crew
and his ship in a sea mishap,” the senator added.
This
developed as Sen. Loren Legarda proposed the creation of
two new agencies to replace the NFA and take over its
two distinct functions: importing rice and regulating
the sale of grains and cereals.
“The
rice crisis we are facing, as well as the bleak
prognosis on global food security, should impress upon
Congress the immediacy of passing Senate Bill 1396 which
I filed last year to effect the reorganization of the
NFA,” said Legarda.
She
voiced concern over a report by the World Food Program (WFP)
that 20 million children among the poorest of nations
are already being threatened by severe hunger. The
organization described the problem as a “silent tsunami
of hunger.”
In the
Philippines, she added, “the prevalence of malnutrition,
especially among children, should jolt us into action to
ensure ample supply of affordable and accessible food
for all.” She added that dividing the commercial and
regulatory functions of the NFA would allow its
replacement agencies to concentrate on the two distinct
tasks it does at present.
She
suggested that separating the commercial functions under
one entity and ensuring appropriations for such a
function will “lessen dependence on borrowings, would
instill transparency and better handling of its
finances.” On the other hand, she added, the regulatory
functions like price monitoring, licensing and
registration will be more adequately performed by a
separate entity, which shall then be immune from losses
arising from commercial operations. |
