Monday, April 07, 2008 Cebu's rice supply 'stable'
ALTHOUGH Cebu City is still enjoying a stable supply of rice, it continues to be affected by the escalation of prices, which officials admit they cannot do anything about.
City Administrator Francisco Fernandez said rice traders recently assured the Cebu City Local Price Monitoring Council there is enough rice for the Cebuanos.
“We have no problem with the supply. There is a stable supply and rice is still being sold, but our main problem is the price increase. Unfortunately, we can’t do anything about the price because this is a macroeconomic policy that is beyond our competence. The tariffs the traders pay is beyond us,” he said.
The council started inspecting wholesale and retail stores last week to check on reports that distributors have been hoarding stocks.
Fernandez said no one was caught.
He said they have discussed rising prices with the traders, who told him that they themselves have been getting their stocks at a much higher price than that of the previous months.
What the City Hall and the price monitoring council can do, he said, is to hasten the setting up of more “Bigasan ni Gloria” outlets to ensure that more people will have access to government-subsidized rice products.
The monitoring council is composed of representatives from City Hall, the National Food Authority, Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Meanwhile, the Archdiocese of Cebu urged the Catholic flock to participate in resolving the rice crisis affecting the country by not wasting rice.
Through its weekly publication Bag-ong Lungsuranon, the archdiocese explained that the problem should remind Cebuanos that they are not taking care of God’s blessings, particularly when they throw away cooked rice they could not consume.
For the archdiocese, the crisis is partly due to greed, because some people “with no conscience” have taken advantage of the situation.
The archdiocese has asked the government to quickly run after hoarders and strictly implement the law against them.
Hiding or stopping rice from reaching the plates of the people at a cheaper price is an offense against the nation, it added.
For City Councilor Edgardo Labella, the DA should re-examine the country’s rice self-sufficiency production program to increase productivity.
Labella said a country inhabited by a rice-eating population should put the program in the government’s economic development agenda to ensure food security.
A good output resulting from the program would also help minimize the effects of the “erratic swing of supply and demand” for rice, he said in a proposed resolution.
“While we laud the government’s remedial measures in containing the alleged current problem on the rice supply, it would be much better if the concerned agencies would take a look into our rice self-sufficiency production program in the wake of the report that our country ranked low in the rice productivity output vis-a-vis the output of our Asian neighbors,” Labella said.
The church also called on the people to ponder if it is enough to have money to easily get their basic needs if there is nothing to buy.
“Karon gipugwat kita sa kamatuoran nga ang kinaihayan, ang kayutaan, ang kaumahan maoy gigikanan niining tanan. Ug nga kita gipahimangnoan nga aduna usahay pagkahubas ang paghatag sa kinaiyahan (Now, were are jolted back to the truth that nature, the land, the farms are the source of all abundance. And we are reminded that everything nature gives can be exhausted),” it said. (LCR/NRC)
