More imported rice here

MANILA, Philippines—More shipments of rice imported by the previous Arroyo administration are arriving in the country in spite of a glut. Militant farmers and senators are demanding for the surplus commodity to be distributed to poor households.

Danilo Bonabon, National Food Authority (NFA) director in Central Visayas, Wednesday said that around 2 million bags of rice were arriving in Cebu City until the end of August for Central and Eastern Visayas and the cities of Pagadian and Dipolog.

He said this shipment would be on top of the 2.6 million bags of imported rice stored in different warehouses in Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor and Negros Oriental.

Lito Banayo, newly appointed NFA chief, Wednesday said he was asking the Department of Justice to investigate why the NFA under Arroyo had authorized the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PTIC) to import 20,000 metric tons of rice from Vietnam in spite of the surplus.

“We ourselves asked for the delay of the shipment. We’re oversupplied. Why did we allow the importation through the PITC? Unless we’re hiding something,” he said by phone.

It’s the NFA that has the mandate to import rice, not the PITC, he stressed.

Bonabon said the volume of imported rice would just be enough for Central Visayas. He said that the NFA should have buffer stocks good for one month in their different warehouses as a policy.

The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) Wednesday urged President Benigno Aquino III to distribute surplus rice to the more than 4 million Filipinos who, he said in his State of the Nation Address, were eating less than three meals a day.

“If we are indeed swimming in rice, then the Aquino government should just distribute the excess rice for free so that it will not go to waste,” said Felix Paz of the KMP national council.

“It is the best way to resolve this dilemma and is hitting two birds with one stone. The excess rice will be utilized and the poor will be given food even for just a few days,” Paz added.

The group was reacting to a report on Tuesday by Banayo that the country was “swimming in rice” because the Arroyo administration had imported seven times more than the country’s needs.

Banayo said that the NFA under Arroyo had authorized the importation of some 20,000 metric tons of rice estimated at P100 million in late April or May despite the oversupply in the local market. He said that the shipment had started to arrive at Poro Point in La Union.

Mr. Aquino on Monday said that rice was rotting in warehouses while the NFA had accumulated debts totaling P177 billion.

Senate inquiry urged

Senators Edgardo Angara, Jinggoy Estrada and Loren Legarda echoed the KMP demand.

“It’s unconscionable that while people are hungry, there should be an oversupply of our basic need,” Legarda said. “If there are stockpiles of rice that are not rotting, they should be distributed to the poorest of the poor.”

Legarda has introduced a resolution calling for an investigation into claims of rice oversupply.

“Government should make a plan on how to distribute the rice to the hungry, especially those in the poorest provinces,” Estrada said.

June to August are regarded as “lean months,” said Angara, adding that the NFA should release the imported rice now, “otherwise the traders will make a killing.”

Paz urged Aquino to stop relying on imported rice and take measures to ensure a steady supply of the Filipinos’ staple diet.

He said that the government should issue a moratorium on conversions of rice land to other uses. He pointed out that lands allotted for rice now comprised just 3.28 million hectares, or 10 percent of the country’s total land area.

Paz noted that 90 percent of the population consumed rice every day but such a small percentage of land was now being used to cultivate the country’s staple food.

Low price of palay

“Aside from this, more than 4.2 million farmers and agriculture-related workers rely on our staple for their jobs but it is often neglected. While billions are being spent just to import rice, the price of palay (unhusked rice) remained low,” he said.

According to Paz, the price of palay could go as low as P4.50 a kilogram during harvest time, lower than the price of hog feed now pegged at P5 a kilo.

“What the new administration must do now to completely eliminate rice importation, whether legal or illegal, and to implement genuine agrarian reform because this is the key to our food self-sufficiency,” Paz explained.

“If the farmers own the land they till and they are mandated to plant rice to feed the nation then we would not have to face another rice crisis again, but as it is, 7 out of 10 farmers do not have their own land and we hope that Noynoy will give us what we want,” he said.

Agrarian reform policy

Mr. Aquino has so far remained silent on his policy on agrarian reform, a key demand of leftist movements fighting for social justice, particularly on how he will deal with a farmers’ clamor for the distribution of his family’s Hacienda Luisita.

This year, the NFA allowed private companies to import special varieties through the PITC. This had been projected to bring the total rice imports this year to 2.45 million tons.

Late last year, the country tendered 2.05 million tons of white rice from abroad for 2010, but rising prices forced the NFA to buy only 1.82 million tons for delivery until June this year. With reports from Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas; and Anselmo Roque, Inquirer Central Luzon

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