Gov’t Lying About Country’s Rice Stock

Lies, all lies.  

This is how the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) last week described recent government claims that the country’s rice stock is sufficient for at least 95 days or three months.

BY KARL G. OMBION 
Bulatlat.com

Rafael Mariano, KMP chairman and himself a rice farmer from Central Luzon, said that contrary to National Food Authority (NFA) pronouncements, the country’s rice stock as of March 23 is only 714,000 bags, which is good for only 29 days since national consumption is at 24,000 bags per day.

Earlier, Trade and Industry Secretary Mar Roxas III, while visiting Bacolod City, assured the public there is no basis to fear because the country has more than enough food for three months.

He also told Negrenses that sugar supply could last for 150 days, enough for until the next harvest-milling season. Roxas reminded the people not to go into panic-buying and warned businesses not to engage in speculative economic activities and hoarding that may lead to unnecessary hikes in the prices of basic commodities.

Roxas however admitted that if the U.S. war in Iraq takes long, it would cause economic debacle, affecting the inflow of investment and the country’s supply of gasoline and food commodities.

Mariano, in a media conference of the Pesticide Action Network Asian Congress held in Quezon City late last week, lambasted the government for lying about the nation’s food status and risking the lives of millions of Filipinos.

The government’s claims that it has 95 days worth of rice stock “is very deceptive” as it includes those in the private warehouses of the big agricultural traders, which the government knows it has no control of nor has it the right to dispose, Mariano said.

Not simply statistical oversight

The KMP leader also said  “this is not a simple case of statistical oversight, or a slip of the tongue, but it reflects the government’s all out-adherence to imperialist globalization policies, particularly the full liberalization of our agriculture.”

Mariano said since the full implementation of World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement on agriculture in the Philippines, the agriculture outputs and revenues have steadily declined, turning the country into one of Asia’s top importers of agricultural products including traditional crops like rice, onions, garlic and sugar.

Mariano stressed that government through its consistent and aggressive promotion of WTO policies caused this alarming situation.

The government’s agricultural policy direction, criticized Mariano, is aimed at making our country dependent on agricultural imports as dictated by WTO agreements, rather than developing our agriculture’s capacity to become self-reliant and self-sufficient, he said.

Mariano warned that the government policy is not only killing the country’s agricultural producers and consumers, but also destroying agriculture as the base through which the people could build and develop their capacity to survive and modernize. Bulatlat.com
 

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