THE MOUNTAINEER
>> Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Rice shortage: Political time bomb?
(First part)
EDISON L. BADDAL
BONTOC, Mountain Province -- The steep increase in the price of oil which reached now d $115 per barrel in the world market engendered has triggered prices of food like rice, flour, corn on a global scale. As a result, economic crunch triggered social unrest in some parts of the world where intense shortage of food reeled like Haiti, Egypt and the Philippines. The Prime Minister of Haiti was ousted not only due to the acute shortage of food but its inaccessibility to most people thereabouts due to unaffordable price which precipitated into a food riot and rampant looting of grain storehouses.
The meltdown in that country’s economy and the inability of their government to rein in the continued ratcheting up of prices of basic goods culminated in political instability. Corollary thereto, the meltdown was exacerbated by palpable mismanagement in the distribution of food supplies. The recent upheaval in Haiti exemplified the ominous warning blared by IMF officials that “hundreds of people will be starving leading to a disruption in economic environment such as social unrest, particularly poor countries” due to accelerating food prices and imminent
food shortage.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, as food shortages which intensifies demand against limited food supply is triggering high inflation in
many countries and might cause warmongering in the offing, if not actual war itself, between countries. The worst scenario is that populous countries might invade and annex territories so as to have sufficient food supply for their population.
In this context, a deja vu of the situation of Japan in the 1920’s and ‘30’s will betide in which Japan invaded its neighbor Asian countries in order to solve the food shortage for its burgeoning population then. In the Philippines, the current rice shortage had the government scrambling frantically on its toes the past two weeks to find ways to access affordable rice to every poor household nationwide.
Available buffer stocks in NFA stock houses which are expected to supply the food needs of the 88.5 million Filipinos for the lean months until the next harvest are swiftly being depleted due to the continuous queue of people for the cheap rice. Also corruption, anomalous trade practices and the fact that people are shying away from commercial rice due to its prohibitive price, the buffer stocks has so far failed to respond adequately to the food need of the people hence emergency imports were made from Thailand,Vietnam and the United States.
On this score, the Arroyo government should be credited for acting with dispatch and foresight on the crisis before it degenerates into an unmanageable social upheaval. Its no-nonsense crackdown against rice smugglers/illegal smugglers and hoarders is stabilizing the cheap rice supply at this point. Of late, the zealous crackdown netted 12 wheat smugglers who divested the government of millions of pesos in potential revenues.
In Cavite, a joint operation of police and municipal officials led to the confiscation of 3,334 bags of hoarded rice and paraphernalia for the felonious trade practice of the owners. Parallel NBI operations, on other hand, resulted in 13 persons lodged with various criminal charges with the DOJ for crimes like price manipulation, hoarding and unauthorized possession of government rice, and diversion of government rice.
Putting more teeth into its campaign, rice stocks already released into the market by the NFA were allegedly pulled out to prevent it from falling into the hands of unscrupulous traders who are suspected at this point to have stage-managed the temporary rice crisis for their advantage. Suspected rice hoarders,so-called rice bandits because they corner government grains then manipulate the market for a higher price when supplies become scarce, have always behind rice supply shortage like what is transpiring now.
Motivated by plain avarice, these hoarders are not licensed NFA rice traders so that their stocks of government rice have been illegally diverted to their warehouses. This is evidenced by the lack of signboard and record book for their warehouse or grains transaction with the NFA which is the only authorized outlet and distributor of government rice. The worst anomalous business practice, however, is the re-bagging or repacking of NFA rice into commercial sacks which are then resold to unsuspecting buyers as commercial rice.
This is a gross violation of Sec. 29 (c) of Presidential Decree No. 4. Meanwhile, it is believed that these rice hoarders are members of a cartel who, in cahoots with NFA personnel and alien food traders, are involved in cornering government rice supply. The involvement of foreigners in the illegal diversion or cornering of government rice is evidenced by a pair of two Chinese food traders who were recently deported by the BID. This was when their involvement in cornering the rice supply intended for a Northern province was unearthed.
Economically, the rice crisis, which was triggered by increase in the price of oil and its byproducts, upped the inflation rate of the country’s economy for the current month to 6.4%. This is a sudden and abrupt increase considering that the inflation rate used to hover between 2.6% to 3% in previous years.
If the food shortage continues, the government might be unable to reach its
goal of achieving a 5% or higher economic growth rate for the year. It will negate the high growth rate that that it achieved last year, which is one for the books. It might also delay the eradication of the remaining budget deficit which it expects to wipe out this year in order to introduce a deficit-free national budget next year.
However, if the government won’t flinch in its crackdown on anomalous trade practices with the felons, including government workers playing footsie with them, jailed, the momentum of economic recovery will yet be sustained, much less
expand and improve. At most, the sustained crackdown will serve as a warning to the hoarders’ ilk that the government means business in its campaign to make the country self-sufficient in rice and other food supplies.
On the other hand, to continuously sustain government subsidy on the NFA rice, maybe some projects can be realigned for the purpose until the price of rice, including commercial rice, will stabilize. This is to stave off hunger of the masses until the next harvest. Also, this is to supplement whatever share the government will get from the $200 million food fund which was released by US President George Bush as emergency aid to countries stalked by hunger. It will likewise augment the country’s share from the United Nation’s World
Food program which is currently collecting funds from rich western countries to supply food to countries being besieged by food shortage and wracked by violent protests.
On the political front, rice as a political issue is an underlying social volcano.
Being the staple food, its shortage, either artificial or otherwise, never fails trigger bitter resentment, dissent and broadsides by the masses against the government. A square meal is never complete without a serving of rice on a Filipino household’s dining table. Several past rebellions from the masses due to hunger associated with inadequate provisions, including rice, has spattered the country’s history.
Fact is, for the poor Filipinos, a great number of whom subsist on a dollar a day, rice is the primary commodity on which meager income is disposed. By and large, a poor household can dispense with viand but not with rice from its shoestring budget inasmuch as it bridges the gap between hunger and
food satisfaction.
Meanwhile, it is also the primary source of carbohydrates that provides physical energy for most Filipinos. Thus, PGMA is astute enough to realize the shortage of rice as an incendiary political issue hence her swift action to ensure lasting supply of
affordable to the poor. At this point, though, with the big portion of the population
going for cheap rice, it is high time that the government should seriously consider curbing annual population growth even to the extent of bucking the catholic hierarchy if need be.
The annual population growth rate which now precariously stands at 2.36% is putting much stress and can hardly be sufficiently provided for from the dwindling resources of the country. An annual population growth rate of 1.5% to 1.6% is more manageable as far as the country’s remaining resources are concerned.
It is quite laudable that, except for minor political posturing like when Legarda
decried the planned increase in the price of NFA rice, the guns of the opposition was silenced. Presumably, they might have realized that they owe it to themselves more so to the Filipino people, who installed them to their positions in the first place, to lend a hand to the government in solving the rice crisis.
At least, their silence helped in some ways to backstop the efforts of the government
to ensure the supply of cheap rice to the people. Their silence also averted a potential social eruption caused by the crisis from aggravating. They were prudent enough to realize that they cannot afford to be smug and cavalier even as it behooves them to be of real service to the people at this point by putting their skills, energy and resources where their mouths are. And to the slogans they mouthed in their past campaign rhetoric.
More than ever, standoffish and destructive politics are not necessary at this time, as it never was and will never be, and should take the backseat not only now but for all time, for the sake of the people. In Mt. Province, the only evidence of the
crisis is the general complaint of restaurateurs and small eatery owners that the prohibitive price of rice and meat has reduced their gains. Otherwise, hardy people as they are, farm lots of Mountain folks have been planted early by at least a month and a half or two months due to the rainful and stormy summer
that we have.
The easterly rains that preceded the first storm to hit the country a week ago replenished irrigation canals and softened dried earth for plowing. One thing more, mountaineers usually buy rice, NFA or commercial, by the sack and not by kilos so that they do not feel much the acuteness of the rice crisis. By a long shot, the production of heirloom rice, which is in the pipeline, will enable local farmers to be more productive through applied organic farming. This will secure them against any rice crisis in the near or distant future.
0 comments:
Post a Comment