Benjie Oliveros: Play of Words Does Not Make the Rice Crisis Go Away

The Arroyo government is again playing with words, as if it would make the rice crisis (which has now reached the level of a food crisis) go away. It claims there is no rice crisis but admits to a rice price crisis. There may be no real shortage yet but sharp increases in the price of rice make it inaccessible to the poor and lower segments of the middle class. This is the face of the crisis today.

BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
Bulatlat

The Arroyo government is again playing with words, as if it would make the rice crisis (which has now reached the level of a food crisis) go away. Every time the topic of the current rice crisis is being discussed Agriculture Sec. Arturo Yap and the spokespersons of Malacanang are quick to “clarify” that there is no rice crisis but a rice price crisis. They also keep on harping about the adequate supply of rice in the country, citing that we have more than enough to last us up to the first quarter of next year. Malacanang also said that the Philippines is in the best position to cope with the rice price crisis and that the country would not experience food riots, as what happened in Haiti and other underdeveloped countries, because of adequate supply. The Arroyo government is blaming rice traders and hoarders for the rice price increases.

Rice traders, on the other hand, are blaming the government for causing panic among consumers, which, they said, is the reason for the rice price increases.

Gauging by the continuously increasing lines for NFA rice, there really is a rice crisis. It may be quite different from what the country experienced in the 1970s but it is a crisis nonetheless. In the 1970s there was a shortage and we had to mix corn with rice. The Marcos dictatorship launched a program called Masagana 99, introducing high yielding varieties of rice, to prevent the recurrence of the shortage.

Currently, there is no real shortage yet but sharp increases in the price of rice make it inaccessible to the poor and lower segments of the middle class. Unaffordable rice (and basic foods) is the face of the crisis today. In fact, traders and retailers of rice are even complaining that they could not sell their rice except at a very low profit margin or sometimes even at cost.

Hunger amid a situation of adequate supply is the cruel paradox of the day. It is, perhaps, what caused the food riots and looting in other countries. It is easier for people to tighten their belts, literally and figuratively, if they see that there really is a shortage. But to see that rice and other foods are available in the market and yet people go hungry because they could not afford it makes people more desperate and angry,

Who is to blame?

The price spikes in rice and other foods are happening globally, especially after the decision of major rice exporting countries such as Vietnam and Thailand to limit their exports for fear of a global rice supply shortage due to the shifts in agricultural production in a lot of countries from producing food i.e. rice and wheat to biofuel. Nevertheless the government is still responsible for making the Filipino people vulnerable to demand and supply shocks, as well as the callous machinations of speculators, in the international market.

Why?