NFA Should Buy More Local Rice, Not Import

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel,
Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said the government should
intensify the production of rice instead of telling
the people to reduce their consumption of the staple
cereal.

Pimentel cautioned Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap
against insisting on his suggestion for people to cut
down their rice consumption because this is the kind
of reckless statement by administration officials that
can incite public anger or uprising.

He said the agriculture chief’s suggestion only serves
to contradict his claim that there is no shortage of
this politically-sensitive commodity at the moment and
even in the succeeding months.

“Secretary Yap’s advice to the people to reduce their
rice intake reminds me of Marie Antoinette who,
shortly before the French Revolution, famously said if
the people had no bread to eat, they should eat cake,”
Pimentel said.

He said such advice seems to betray his unfamiliarity
with the eating habit of the typical, poor Filipinos,
who will not mind having no viands on the dining table
as long as there is enough rice and some salt.

Pimentel lamented that the Philippines is still
heavily dependent on rice imports to make up for
deficiency in local palay production. He said this
belies the administration’s claim that its
much-ballyhooed “Ginintuang Ani” rice sufficiency
program is reaping fruitful results.

This year alone, the government is importing 2.1
million metric tons of rice from Thailand, Vietnam and
other countries. The Department of Agriculture targets
rice production to reach 17.33 million metric tons,
equivalent to a national sufficiency level of 92
percent.

Pimentel said the NFA should beef up its rice
stockpile by giving priority to the procurement of
rice from local farmers, instead of relying too much
on imports.

He noted that local farmers are always complaining
that they are being ignored by the NFA in its rice
procurement in favor of imports that only benefit the
farmers from rice-exporting neighboring countries.

“The authorities find it more convenient to buy rice
from other countries. Is it because they stand to gain
a lot of money from this scheme?” the minority leader
said.

Pimentel said it’s about time the government rethinks
its rice procurement policy in the light of the tight
supply and soaring prices of this staple cereal in the
world market. From $295 per metric ton last year, the
price of rice has shot up more than $500 per MT this
year, reports said.

He said the government stands to lose a lot of money
from the transaction because it has to sell the
imported rice to consumers at subsidized, and low
prices despite the expensive import cost of the
commodity.

The minority leader said the problem is aggravated by
the rampant practice of corrupt NFA officials to
divert the agency’s rice stocks to grains cartels,
which in turn, sell them at commercial rates of P26
per kilo or higher, instead of the authorized P18.25
per kilo.

Pimentel dared Secretary Yap to mount a relentless
crackdown on NFA officials and employees, as well as
grains traders, involved in the rice scam.

“He should get to the bottom of the illegal diversion
and sale of NFA rice and punish the culprits whoever
they are. Otherwise, people will suspect that he is
involved or he is covering up this anomaly,” he said.

Pimentel said the magnitude of the problem is clearly
shown in the diversion of 120,000 metric tons of NFA
rice to grains cartels in Northern Mindanao.
-o0o-

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