LGUs urged to spare rice from politics

BY GERARD NAVAL

CARITAS Manila yesterday called on local government officials to perform in earnest their task of retailing government-subsidized rice to the poor community.

"Be sincere in distributing NFA rice to urban poor beneficiaries, whether of the same political affiliate or otherwise. Prioritize ultra poor and have rice available to as many poor constituents as possible," said Fr. Anton Pascual, executive director of Caritas Manila, the social action arm of the Archdiocese of Manila.

On Sunday, Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral warned poor families against local officials who she said might politicize the system by favoring their relatives and allies.

"LGUs and barangays can abuse it to favor `Kamag-anak Incorporated,’ political patronage and negative utang na loob, which may not be urban poor beneficiaries at all," Pascual said.

Pascual said monitoring the access cards being used by beneficiaries to purchase NFA rice would be a good way to prevent abuses.

President Arroyo has ordered the pullout from public markets of the rice being sold by the National Food Authority at P18.25 a kilo. She said the cheap rice would be made available through LGUs and Church retail stores.

The NFA’s commercial grade rice, sold at P25 a kilo, will remain in the public markets.

The Ginintuang Masaganang Ani (GMA) rice program said there is no rice crisis.

"If you go around rice-producing provinces for example Nueva Ecija, Isabela and Iloilo... we have more than enough as we would have more rice this season," said Dr. Frisco Malabanan, GMA program director.

"We are looking forward that by 2010 we could produce more and close the gap between the production and consumption," he said.

The GMA unveiled its program for next year, geared at improving rice productivity and raising farmers’ income.

The GMA rice program aims to increase palay production to 17.32 million metric tons this year and 19.06 million tons in 2010, from the 16.24 million metric tons in 2007.

For farming income, the target is an increase through a 10 percent reduction of production costs and 10 percent of post harvest losses, and by increasing yield by 20 percent from 2006 to 2010.

Sen. Edgardo Angara, chair of the Senate agriculture committee, batted for a nationwide rice price subsidy for the poorest of the poor as a short-term measure to cushion the impact of the rice problem.

"For many poor Filipinos, food especially rice, eats up the bulk of their expenses. The bottom of the 80 percent of our country’s population allots 60 percent of their expenditure on food, and half of it goes to buying rice," Angara said.

Angara said the government could draw lessons from what he did as agriculture chief of the Estrada government when "rice passports" were distributed to extremely indigent families identified by the NFA and the DSWD.

He said during that time, there was a temporary shortage of rice and his department’s response was the rice passport system, under which beneficiaries would be sold rice at half price subsidized by government.

Sen. Manuel Roxas II demanded full transparency and accountability in addressing the rice crisis.

"Responding to the rice and food crisis on one hand, and probing anomalies on the other, are not mutually exclusive. Checks and balances are needed at all times to ensure that whatever the government spends to address this crisis goes to the intended beneficiaries," Roxas said. – With Randy Nobleza and Dennis Gadil