Another publicity gimmick on rice summit plan

Man at the Market

Jesse E.L. Bacon II

03/24/2008

Accusing the Arroyo administration of being a cacophony in regard the worsening rice crisis, Senate committee on trade and commerce chair Sen. Manuel Mar Roxas II called on the government to honestly recognize the problem so it can be effectively addressed.

Roxas noted the contradictory statements issued by Mrs. Arroyo her self that he says only fuel confusion such as when she denies that there is a rice crisis but at the same time advises the public to wrestle with an increase in the prices of the staple food. Roxas asks, if there is no crisis why ask the people to accept the inevitability of an increase in its prices?

The way the administration is handling the problem is indeed a puzzler. But the puzzler can easily be puzzled out if reckoned with all the claims of the administration at having won the battle against food shortage. Remember how much this administration bragged about the supposed milestones achieved by the agriculture sector in ensuring food security?

Admitting the existence of a rice crisis is out of the question. So, this administration would rather issue contradictory statements as far as this problem is concerned rather than admit squarely that the food security milestone is pure hype. How can one make head and tail out of the denial issued by Mrs. Arroyo that there is no rice shortage in light of the call made by the Department of Agriculture for consumers to reduce their daily rice intake urging at the same time fast food chains to offer half-cup rice servings to consumers?

Even the country’ s projected rice importations for the year had been increased from 1.2 million metric tons to 2 million metric tons. Now, if there is no rice crisis, why the increase in our rice importation? Compounding the country’ s situation is the non-committal stance of our regular rice suppliers, Thailand,Vietnam to provide our total requirement. Roxas demanded that Mrs. Arroyo should start addressing the problem now instead of continually denying that it exists.

He proposed the immediate release of calamity funds to local government units (LGU) for the purpose of aiding farmers with seeds, fertilizers and pesticides to ensure the next harvest is plentiful. He further proposed that LGUs be directed to establish a food security warning mechanism particularly in barangays to ensure targeted distribution of rice especially to children and the elderly.

Further, he suggested to reactivate the peace process in insurgency areas to enable unimpeded cultivation, planting, tending and harvesting of crops in conflict areas and to create special investigative and prosecutorial teams to run after hoarders, profiteers, rice cartel members and corrupt National Food Authority elements who diverted rice stocks from public warehouses to private stores.

Roxas cautioned the administration from staging a rice summit that he says is only good for publicity and photo-ops that yield nothing substantial just like the last oil summit that never brought the prices of oil down.

Doffing one’ s hat

Many, including this columnist, have noticed a regular stream of complaints mostly from public school teachers and retirees landing in letter-to-editor sections of several broadsheets accusing the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) of various sins of omission and commission. It amuses me no end that these complaints ranging from un-remitted pension for retirees, wrong computation of benefits due a member such as salary loan, erroneous computation of pension benefits, etc. keep on propping up despite the fact that the GSIS has a ready explanation to all these complaints. Personally, this columnist still has to encounter a complaint not satisfactorily explained by the GSIS as having addressed by them already thus, this corners doffing of his hat to the agency s able handling of these cases seeing print in newspapers. But where does the problem lie? Is it with the GSIS or with the complainants? Another puzzler, isn’t it?

(jelbacon@yahoo.com for reactions)

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