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AN
additional P15 billion is needed for the government’s
rice subsidy, according to Agriculture Secretary Arthur
Yap, who estimated that the government can keep
subsidizing rice to the tune of 55 percent of the market
until the end of this year.
He said
the government had already spent P10 billion for rice
subsidy in the first half and they are looking at a
total spending of around P25 billion to P30 billion for
the rest of the year.
He said
addressing food security for the second half must start
now. “But the question is, can we sustain this
[subsidy]? That’s why the government needs to move to
the second phase of addressing the problem through
focused assistance to farm sectors to increase rice
production.”
Speaking
at the United Nations forum on food security on Friday,
Yap said the government subsidized rice amounted to only
10.6 percent of the market at the beginning, and
increased to 21 percent in June, then “on July 15 our
market participation reached 59 percent.”
The
government is facing “severe challenges” in increasing
rice yields and will require an additional P6 billion
for repair of the irrigation networks built way back
during the Masagana 99 program of the late dictator
President Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s.
He added
that the government also needs P9 billion to build the
national seed program and, with the high price of
fertilizers, would require an additional P21 billion to
obtain palay yields sufficient for the demand during the
dry crop season.
Yap said
the P21 billion could be raised both at the national-
and local-government levels, but should be supported by
private funds, specifically from loans to farmers. “But
there are no more thrift and cooperative banks willing
to lend to our farmers.”
But here
is the fly in the rice-subsidy ointment. Yap admitted
the subsidized National Food Authority rice is not
“effectively reaching the impoverished sector. That’s
why we need to distribute the family access card
immediately so we would be able to sell the cheap rice
to the poorest families.” In the meantime, who is
profiting? He did not say.
Yap also called on the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to
establish a global food-stockpile system to meet
food-crises in the future.
“If
there is such a system in place, there would be no
panic. . .[food purchases] would be done sans political
and geopolitical [factors]. It would take the
speculative aspect out of the situation,” said Yap,
noting the food crisis in some poor countries had led to
riots.
WFP
country director and representative Stephen Anderson
said at the forum the Philippine government’s proposal
will be considered by the UN body. Yap had formally made
the proposal at a meeting of the Food and Agriculture
Organization in Rome last month.
Anderson
said the WFP is looking into different ways to address
the continuous rise of food prices. “Prices remain
volatile and the proposal merits some consideration
because everyone is going after the same food stockpile.
It can be useful in averting a big crisis. Global
lessons can be learned.”
The rice
problem is being worsened by hoarding, according to
Lakas Rep. Maria Rachel Arenas of Pangasinan. She filed
House Bill 4583 to punish hoarding with a prison term of
20 years and a fine of up to P5 million. At present, the
penalty is a two-year prison term and a maximum fine of
P250,000.
Arenas
believes the stiffer penalties will be a deterrent and
will lead to the establishment of standards of conduct
for business and industries, especially for times of
calamities and disasters.
Titled
the “Anti-Hoarding Act of 2008,” the bill further seeks
to provide safeguards against restricting competition
usually through cartelization and predatory pricing.
(With Fernan Marasigan) |
