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Saturday, June 21, 2008
Rice prices in Oro market stabilize
By Annabelle L. Ricalde
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- The prices of rice in Cagayan de Oro City have stabilized this week after the National Food Authority (NFA) doubled the volume of the state-subsidized rice available for the consumers.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has also ordered the NFA to issue "Family Access Card" to ensure poor families can avail of the state-subsidized grains being sold at P25 a kilo.
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The prices of rice went down dramatically after Yap's announcement last Thursday.
Based on the monitoring last June 4 in Cogon market, seven-tonner variety went down to P35 a kilo from P46 a kilo. Bordagol variety is also being sold now at P36 a kilo from P52 a kilo.
Other rice varieties like Jasmine was sold on Friday at P47 a kilo down from P54 a kilo last June 4.
NFA Misamis Oriental manager Victoria Duray said they have increased the allocation for Cagayan de Oro from 1,000 bags a day to 2,000 bags a day.
Yap, who came here Thursday to speak at the ceremony of the GMA Rice Fertilizer Subsidy program, got furious when he saw the long queues of people waiting to buy NFA rice in Cogon market.
"We have sufficient rice pero bakit hindi matapos-tapos ang linya (but how come there are still long lines?" Yap said.
The agriculture secretary immediately instructed NFA-Northern Mindanao Director Javier Lozada Jr. and DA-Northern Mindanao Director Lealyn Ramos to issue "Family Access Card" to the city's poor families.
Yap said the state-subsidized rice is intended only for poor families who cannot afford to buy the high price of commercial rice varieties.
"Pero ang nangyari mas marami sa mga may pera ang nakabili ng NFA rice kaysa sa mahihirap (but what happened is that people who can afford are able to buy NFA rice rather than the poor ones), that should not be the case dahil P6 billion na ang nagastos ng gobyerno (because the government has already spent P6 billion)," Yap said.
Meanwhile, there have been reports that some unscrupulous persons are asking P20 from consumers in exchange for priority numbers that would allow them to get ahead of the queue lines.
Yap questioned NFA officials about the report, but Duray denied having knowledge on the matter.
Duray said the long queue lines in Cogon would start to disappear because there are now eight grain retailers authorized to sell NFA rice.
Yap said the NFA would ask the local governments for help in monitoring rice to ensure that the NFA rice will not go beyond P25 a kilo. (Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (June 21, 2008 issue)
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