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SEN.
Rodolfo Biazon on Wednesday filed Joint Resolution 11
seeking to suspend the implementation of Republic Act
9367, also known as the Biofuels Act of 2006, until such
time that all resources, such as lands, technology,
organizational structures and marketing mechanisms
needed to ensure the country’s food self-sufficiency,
especially on rice, are already in place.
Biazon
said, “The present food crisis or shortage that led to a
skyrocketing of the price of food globally has
highlighted the food and fuel debates in the world. Food
riots occurred in
Burkina Fasso,
Egypt,
Mexico, Indonesia and, in the case of Haiti, it caused
the fall of the government.”
He
added: “The present problem is not confined to the
immediate problem of shortage and high prices of food,
but more so in the coming years.”
There
are indicators, he said, of the emergence of an “Arpec
[Association of Rice Producing and Exporting Countries]
behaving like the Opec [Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries].”
According to Biazon, “The world is helpless when the
Opec decides to increase the price of oil either through
overproduction or underproduction, causing untold
sufferings among vulnerable societies. The worst can be
expected if Arpec begins to adopt a similar strategy.”
He
recalled that when the major rice-exporting countries
such as Vietnam and Thailand announced they would curb
their rice exports by as much as 30 percent, the price
of rice skyrocketed by as much as 167 percent and, in
some instances, even higher.
“Situations such as what we are facing today dictate
that the country needs to achieve self-sufficiency in
its requirement for rice and reduce our vulnerability to
global food shortages in the future.”
“While
we consume around 12 million metric tons [MT} of rice
every year, the country is only able to produce around
9.78 MT. Over the past two decades, the trend in our
importation of our basic staple has been increasing. Our
country’s population continues to grow and is putting
more strain on our present, as well as future, food
supply,” he said.
The
senator said experts all over the world have also
pointed out that climate change could further affect
food production worldwide.
“I
support our intention to develop alternative sources of
energy to reduce the country’s dependence on imported
fuels, such as the biofuels. The implementation,
however, of the Biofuels Act of 2006 requires large
areas of land and other resources for the planting of
raw materials for biofuels that may compete for badly
needed lands to address the country’s need for rice
self-sufficiency.”
Biazon
explained that he filed Resolution 11 because “we need
to assure ourselves, that we should first be
self-sufficient in food. According to scientists from
the Philippine Rice Research Institute, we can attain
such objective.” |
