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Friday, April 04, 2008
CBCP wants long-term solution to rice crisis
MANILA -- The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) advised the government to look at other possible option in solving the rice crisis since they believed that rice importation is not a long-term solution to address the shortage in the country.
"Rice importation is a response to rice crisis. But there must be a limit to importations. It should not be the permanent arrangement," said CBCP president and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo in a statement entitled "Give us this day our daily rice."
According to Lagdameo, the government must be aware and have "probably foreseen and expected the rice shortage, but its eyes (are focused) on wrong or lesser priorities."
"Yes we will have rice on our tables but only for those who can afford to buy with 18 pesos per kilogram. We not only will have limited rice. Our people will have also limited buying power," he said.
"And who will be profiting from this arrangement? Unscrupulous traders and government officials? The question keeps coming up whatever happened to the P729 million fertilizer fund," the CBCP president asked.
It was reported that the multimillion-peso fund was never used to help the farmers but had been divested to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's campaign in 2004.
Lagdameo said the government should improve local production by assisting rice producers and farmers to achieve "genuine food security and self-sufficiency."
"Some policies are needed to reverse the trend from over dependence on importation to making the rice production truly the backbone of our economy as it is in other countries of Southeast Asia," he said.
He said in the past, the Philippine economy relied solely on the rice industry, as local farmers were even also able to feed and send their children to school through farming.
Moreover, he noted that during the previous years, "we even export rice and help countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, and Indonesia to improve their rice production."
"Today, ironically, even lamentably, because of unsatisfactory production of rice, lack of credit support for our small rice farmers and lack of infrastructure development, our rice farms cannot support the needs of growing population," Lagdameo lamented.
He said: "Add to this the conversion of farms into housing subdivisions, commercial centers and golf courses, which certainly are profitable for the individual owners but not for the needs of the greater number."
For his part, Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma asked for a review of an agreement between the Philippine government and China over the utilization of 1.2 million hectares of land for agribusiness.
Ledesma said the deal is "highly questionable," and may be disadvantageous to local farmers and worsen "our fragile environment."
"The RP-China agribusiness ventures were rushed in the guise of economic progress and in the name of bilateral economic cooperation, and should be reviewed," he said.
Instead of entering a deal with China, Ledesma said the government should fast track the extension and implementation of Carp to strengthen and improve local food production.
"A step towards such realization would be for government to develop with the people a new development paradigm that shall protect for the rural poor our food sovereignty and our environment," he added.
Last year, Agriculture Secretary Arthur yap suspended the agreement with the Chinese counterpart after meeting strong opposition from various sectors.
Meanwhile, the CBCP is set to hold its second National Rural Congress this year that is geared at determining the root causes of poverty on the diocesan level and is expected to push for social justice issues affecting farmers, small fishermen, indigenous communities and rural women. (Sunnex) |
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