AS prices of basic commodities, including the staple food, continue to go up, expect more protest actions in the coming days.

On Tuesday farmers, led by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Bantay Bigas, picketed the office of the Department of Agriculture (DA) on Eliptical Road in Quezon City to ask the government to stop the importation of rice.

The picket coincided with Bantay Bigas’s launching of brigada kaldero, a series of protest actions against continued increases in the prices of food items and oil products.

The group wants the government to roll back the price of rice sold by the National Food Authority (NFA) to P18.25 per kilo.

KMP secretary-general Danilo Ramos said the NFA audit report “has confirmed the evils of rice importation, and it should be enough reason for the Aquino administration to heed our call.”

An audit team hired by the NFA said the government’s rice-importation program in the last three years of the Arroyo administration—the private sector-financed (PSF) importation from 2008 to 2010—turned out to be a huge liability for the government and “legalized smuggling.”

 “The audit report on the NFA merely confirmed what farmers have long been saying on the government’s rice-importation policy—that it is a legalized smuggling scheme. The PSF importation is no less than a legal front of rice smugglers,” Ramos said.

“Unfortunately,” Ramos said, “the Aquino administration continues to import rice despite its adverse effect on rice farmers and consumers.”

“For this year, the government’s interagency committee on rice and corn already approved the importation of 860,000 metric tons [MT] of rice, 660,000 MT of which were given to the private sector,” he said, adding: “We demand that President Aquino immediately stop the antifarmer and antipeople rice-importation policy.”

“Imported rice enters the country tax-free and the 40 percent of tariff is waived by the government, turning the country into a dumping ground of the rice surplus of other countries at the expense of Filipino farmers,” Ramos said.

He said, “Local farmers have been severely disadvantaged by the widespread availability of imported rice because it depresses farm-gate price of palay, coupled with high production costs.”

“The unbridled rice importation has caused huge volume of imported rice to flood the domestic market,” Ramos added.

Ramos, however, warned the Aquino administration not to use the NFA audit report to justify the privatization or abolition of the agency.

“Instead, we call on the government to restore the P8-billion NFA budget and ensure that the amount be used for local palay procurement and not to the corruption-ridden rice importation,” Ramos said.

For her part, Bantay Bigas spokesman Lita Mariano blamed the Aquino administration’s failure to decisively act on the price increases of oil products, which translated to increases in food prices, including rice.

“What is needed is reversal of the oil-deregulation law and dismantling of the monopolies which oil deregulation only strengthened. Yet, President Aquino has only implemented piece- meal populist solutions, such as gas subsidies, rice subsidies for farmers and fishermen, in an effort to boost the President’s waning popularity,” Mariano said.

Bantay Bigas’s case studies show the cost of crude-oil consumption of farmers increased 28 percent to 29 percent, translating to the increased cost of palay production by 7 percent to 10 percent and bringing down farmers’ incomes by 9.65 percent to 17.66 percent.

The rice-subsidy program of the Aquino government, through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), to help poor farmers and fishermen hit by the price increases, the group believes, is an insult to the farmers producing the country’s staple food.

“Farmers produce rice. We do not need doleouts. What we demand is for the government to implement the mandate of the NFA, which is to ensure the country’s food security by procuring at least 10 percent of the country’s palay production, and make rice affordable to the majority of the Filipino population,” Mariano said.

“The Department of Agriculture boasts of a good harvest, yet the Aquino administration has not provided for palay procurement to ensure farmers get a good price for their produce and rice would be affordable to the poor. If there is good harvest and ample supply of rice, why is the lowest price of rice in the market set at P28 per kilo?” Mariano lamented.

The group is calling for the implementation of the government’s policy of promoting food security as embodied in the NFA’s mandate.

To be able to fulfill the 10-percent mandate of the NFA in rice procurement, the government would need about P30.4 billion annually.

“Fulfilling the NFA’s mandate at buying 10 percent of the country’s total palay production from Filipino farmers, the government would be able to help around 4.9 million to 6.1 million farmers and their families for at least one cropping season and tide them over to the next cropping period,” the group said.

“Instead of the short-term doleout programs of the gas subsidies, rice subsidies, including the Conditional Cash Transfer  program of the DSWD, the Aquino should instead implement reversal of the oil-deregulation law; and, instead of privatizing the country’s food agency, fulfill its food-security program through the NFA’s mandate,” Mariano stressed.

Bantay Bigas is also pushing for the passage of the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill and the Rice Industry Development Act, which it sees as providing long-term solutions to the country’s rice problem and food insecurity.