It’s crazy to hear that rice imports had ended up in some warehouses in Cebu. Why there in the first place? Then, a crackdown on the warehouses keeping tons and tons of rice stocks, both commercial and NFA rice.
In fact, the raiding team had confiscated bundles of empty NFA sacks, which could had been used to mix with commercial rice for sale to the public at a higher price. Again, the victims here were the ordinary consumers who could only afford enough to buy the cheapest available rice in the domestic markets.
From what I theorized in my earlier articles, there is no rice shortage in the Philippines. It was man-made to create the impression that the country needs to import rice from abroad. For what? May be for commission purposes.
The country has a big problem when it comes to rice production and marketing. And the stiff competition between the National Food Authority and the businessmen is the culprit of it all. You know what? If the government continues to flood the market with cheap rice from the NFA, only a handful of consumers will be encouraged to buy the commercial rice, whose quality and taste are for the moneyed few. But even average and medium income earners would readily settle for the NFA rice. After all, it is not a poison that could kill them if they cook NFA rice.
The truck caravan made by rice traders from Isabela was a good move. This is only proof that the country has more than enough rice. Why resort to importation when we have a lot in the northern part of the country. Yes, maybe it’s about time that the NFA should be overhauled, if not dissolved for good. For millions of consumers, it has become inutile. Besides, it allowed to be used by big businessmen for their own personal interests at the expense of the poor who could barely earn money to buy food.
It is true that some government officials have no more conscience. If they do, these are merely filled with peanuts. All they have in mind is to take advantage of the situation. Perhaps, it is high time to abolish this government agency and replace with a new one, whose objective will be for the people’s welfare.
Likewise, what the present administration did to raise the buying price of husked rice to more than P12 was a good initiative. At least, the president herself felt guilty of what happened to the poor farmers who are always on the losing end because they being taken advantaged of by loan sharks and unscrupulous traders, mostly comprising of Filipino-Chinese suspected of being members of the country’s rice cartel.
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