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THE
Department of Agriculture (DA) reported Thursday that
initial summer harvests of palay have already reached 6
million metric tons (MMT) or 77 percent of the projected
7.1- MMT yield during the season.
The DA’s
Rice Action Center (Darac) reported that as of May 5,
harvesting for the dry season has been done in about 77
percent of the areas planted, totaling 1.87 million
hectares, with production reaching 5.893 MMT from all
over the country.
The DA
said the summer harvests are expected to last until
June.
Meanwhile, the government is now focusing on preventing
the diversion of National Food Authority (NFA) rice to
commercial markets to ensure that there is enough supply
during the lean months of July to September. National
Bureau of Investigation (NBI) chief Nestor Mantaring
said in an interview at the Department of Justice (DOJ),
where President Arroyo was to observe proceedings
against those suspected of rice hoarding and diversion,
that Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez issued the
directive to the NBI, but without abandoning efforts
against rice hoarding.
“[Rice]
diversion is the No. 1 priority now....We are focusing
our investigation on the diversion of NFA rice,”
Mantaring said.
He
explained that if authorities only concentrated on rice
hoarding, they (rice traders) will dispose of everything
now and during the lean months, we will not have rice.
The
unlawful practice, which carries a jail term of two to
four years, involves the diversion of NFA rice to
warehouses where it is mixed with commercial rice or
outrightly sold in the market as commercial rice.
Mantaring said NBI operatives are keeping a close watch
over some suspected warehouses used for NFA rice
diversion and monitoring NFA delivery trucks.
In a
mininews briefing after the President’s activity at the
DOJ, where she followed up on cases being filed with the
department on rice-related unlawful acts, Gonzalez said
the NBI has filed charges against 13 people before the
DOJ for alleged diversion of NFA rice, and another will
face charges for the same reason on Friday.
“This
[rice diversion] is the focus now of our campaign. While
we do not abandon the matter of hoarding, etc., we are
more concerned now with the diversion and, of course,
the people who operate without license because those
operate without license per se are really illegal,”
Gonzalez said.
At the
start of the President’s “observation” visit, the Chief
Executive was visibly piqued when she learned that the
NFA has only worked on the administrative cases against
NFA officials allegedly involved in the diversion of NFA
rice in Cagayan de Oro City—two months after she ordered
criminal charges filed against them.
Mrs.
Arroyo wondered aloud how this happened when the NBI and
the NFA, whose chiefs are in the meeting, belong to a
task force on rice-related crimes.
“That’s
why you have an NBI-NFA task force. Why didn’t the task
force put it in the proper form?” she asked, and prodded
concerned officials to provide the proper endorsement of
the NFA case to the NBI for investigation in her
presence.
Asked
for a statement on her DOJ visit, the President said,
“Just observing to make sure that things go fast.”
The NBI,
she said, has “done a good job of sleuthing,” then
looked at Mantaring and said, “I bear hard on you, but
you’re doing a good job of sleuthing. The prosecution,
we will see how good they are when it goes to court.
That would be the best judge of how good they are.”
Gonzalez
said that the President was there “just to check on what
we had been doing and seeing to it that matters are
being done in accordance with her instruction that
without sacrificing due process, the cases are moving as
they should.”
The
joint NBI-NFA Anti-Rice Hoarding Task Force has charged
a total of 33 people, six of them rice traders from
Dalican, Datu Sinsuat, Shariff Kabunsuan, who were
charged before that day, namely, Bainot Mokamad, Sarib
Mariga, Dima Ali, Melanie Limbotungan, Fatima Talib and
Naguib Mokamad.
Meanwhile, the Darac office said in its report that
farmers in the Cagayan Valley have already harvested 87
percent of their total area planted to palay,
representing the highest yield so far of 1.177 MMT. This
was followed by
Central Luzon, which already harvested 50 percent of areas planted
to palay, yielding 678,107 MT, and by
Western Visayas,
which produced 652,282 MT from 90 percent of its areas
planted to palay.
Regional
officials reported that in Eastern Visayas, 87 percent
of areas planted to palay have already been harvested,
yielding 534,461 MT, while in Central Mindanao, farmers
have so far produced 456,220 MT from 90 percent of
areas planted to palay.
In the
Ilocos provinces, 339,182 MT have already been harvested
from 92 percent of areas planted; in the Autonomous
Region of Muslim Mindanao, 333,122 MT in 81 percent of
areas planted; Zamboanga Region, 261,142 MT from 98
percent of areas planted; Bicol, 252,167 MT from 60
percent of areas planted; and in Caraga Region (Region
13) 245,119 MT in 90 percent of areas planted.
In the
Mimaropa provinces of Occidental Mindoro, Oriental
Mindoro, Romblon, Marinduque, and
Palawan, 213,805 MT from 60 percent of areas planted to palay have already been
harvested.
In
Northern Mindanao, 190,901 MT have already been
harvested from 75 percent of areas planted to palay;
Davao Region, 183,217 MT from 90 percent of areas
planted; Calabarzon, 161,170 MT from 68 percent of areas
planted; Central Visayas, 143,879 MT from 70 percent of
areas planted; and the Cordillera Administrative Region
70,998 MT from 34 percent of areas planted.
The DA
said it is confident that with the arrival of some
700,00 MT of rice imports, the country will have enough
rice during the lean season. |
