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Thursday, April 17, 2008
LGUs, church work to address rice problem
VARIOUS local government units and church officials are now taking steps to address the rice crisis in their respective communities and providing measures to address it.
Mayors and governors have been ordered to organize or activate their respective local price coordinating councils (LPCCs) to help monitor unwarranted price increases of rice and other basic commodities in the face of volatile petroleum and food prices in the world market.
In a memorandum circular (MC) issued to all provincial governors and city and municipal mayors, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno pointed out that LPCCs will help protect consumers from hoarders and other unscrupulous traders who might take advantage of the current rice woes to unduly jack up prices of the staple and other basic goods as well.
In the rice producing town of Siaton in Negros Oriental province, residents were more affected by the skyrocketing cost of local rice than a shortage in supply.
Mayor Vincent Emil Arbolado said they used to sell local rice at farm price of P21 per kilo but this has increased to P30 per kilo.
Corn grits, which used to be P19 a kilo, is now sold at P21 per kilo at farm price. The prices are expected to rise when corn grits reach commercial traders in the market.
The mayor further said there is enough supply of rice in the market but it is no longer affordable even to middle class citizens since most good quality rice grains are sold at P33 to 36 per kilo, thus creating a crisis among the poor people.
He said he couldn't blame residents who sacrifice by lining up under the heat of the sun just to avail of cheap government rice.
As a contingency measure, he issued a memorandum to all social workers of the town to make a priority list and issue numbers to residents who will be served in the morning and afternoon.
In Cebu City, the regional social welfare offices are preparing to implement the new distribution scheme for cheap rice in their localities.
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Central Visayas Director Teodulo Romo said he expects to receive on Friday the guidelines on the new system where local government units and parishes will distribute NFA rice to "food poor" residents.
In Central Visayas, those under the "food poor" category are families of five earning P4,170 a month or P139 a day.
Romo added that in Cebu, these are families of five earning a measly P142 a day or P4,262 monthly, according to National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) records in 2006.
It is aimed at making the subsidized rice more accessible to those living in the poverty threshold.
Romo said the local welfare offices and the barangays will identify the beneficiaries, distribute "family access" cards, and ensure the NFA rice stocks will go to them.
The scheme, he added, will correct the abuses to the current system, which was seen to have deprived the intended beneficiaries of the government's hunger mitigation program.
The situation in Siaton was also noted in Zamboanga City.
National Food Authority (NFA) assistant regional director Rolando Maravilla said Zamboanga City has sufficient stocks of rice that can cover the consumption demand of the populace until the next cropping season.
Maravilla said Zamboanga City is experiencing "price crisis not a rice crisis," citing that traders have resorted to unjustified price increases.
He said the city still has a stock of 337,000 sacks of rice stored at the NFA warehouse. This is sufficient to supply cheap rice at the local market for the next 50 days.
Maravilla said the city's consumption is pegged at 5,800 sacks of rice daily.
In addition to NFA rice stocks, at least 22,000 sacks of rice are set to arrive in the city from neighboring rice-producing provinces like Zamboanga Sibugay, he said.
On the other hand, other local localities have focused their efforts in monitoring against hoarding.
Dumaguete City Mayor Agustin Perdices ordered policemen to monitor the rice situation in the city and even offered rewards to people who would provide information on rice hoarding.
Perdices said he would revoke the business permits of rice traders or sellers found to be hoarding rice. They would also face criminal charges.
He urged the public to report to his office or the city police any cases of hoarding.
Negros Occidental Governor Isidro Zayco also ordered all mayors in the province to immediately conduct close monitoring on the prices of rice and other goods.
Zayco issued an executive order that directs "all mayors in all component cities and municipalities in the province to make a close monitoring of the prices of goods in their respective locality and then identify the problem areas, including the appropriate solutions to be take thereon."
He also asked local chief executives to assess the prevailing economic conditions in their localities and asked the mayors to investigate the reported adulteration of rice and such other problems.
Bacolod Diocese Bishop Vicente Navarra and members of the clergy also met with Negros Occidental and NFA officials to find solutions to the issue on rice crisis.
Navarra said despite assurance from the NFA and the Department of Agriculture that the supply of rice in the province is abundant, consumers are already hard-pressed on the soaring prices of commercial and NFA rice.
The unabated hikes in the prices of commercial rice had increasingly deprived more people of access to rice, and no amount of assurance coming from the government could persuade them there is no rice shortage because the reality on the ground is different, Navarra said.
Murcia parish priest Greg Patiņo said NFA rice are being re-bagged by some retailers and sold in the market as commercial rice. "There should be constant monitoring by government agencies on rice traders taking advantage of the situation to avoid additional burden on the people."
Bacolod Diocesan Social Action Center director Fr. Anecito Buenafe, meanwhile, said his office already secured a permit from the NFA to start its "bigasan sa parokya" to help sell NFA rice to poor families.
Meanwhile, local officials of North Cotabato are addressing the rice problem in a different perspective.
They suggested a farmer exchange center patterned after the "botika sa barangay" to other local government officials from all over Mindanao in the Mindanao-wide rice consultation held in Davao City last Thursday.
The farmer exchange center will serve as depository of fertilizers and seedlings that farmers could get at half the price in the market.
Vice Governor Emmanuel Piņol said the present prices of seedlings and fertilizers are so high that poor farmers could hardly afford them.
Piņol said this could be one of the reasons why there is low production of rice in the country.
He said if the government could address the problem on inputs (fertilizers, seedlings and pesticides) then for sure the rice crisis would be readily solved.
The Piņol brothers said they are now preparing details of their proposal into a bill, which the congressman will file in Congress anytime soon.
Representative Bernardo Piņol Jr. said if one looks intently into the situation facing the country, it is not only the rice production that must be addressed by the government but the economic capacity of the people.
He said even the multi-billion-peso recently released by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to address the rice crisis is not a serious remedy considering the money is being loaned to farmers through banks. (pooled report from Sun.Star Network) |
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