MICHAEL MEDINA
Editor in chief
COMMERCIAL rice prices in the province are settling down, a positive showing of the government doing well as expected, the latest press release from the Philippine Information Agency (PIA-9) and forwarded by the Provincial Press Bureau, said.
This continuous drop is expected to stabilize rice price frenzy in the market, after the press office claimed it has conducted random monitoring all around and believes the reason mainly was government’s aggressive infusion of rice into marketplaces.
July, August and September are lean months, a period when farmers begin planting for the next season and with minimal harvest, retail prices are supposed to be on the upswing but as just said, commercial rice prices have devalued to as less as P5 a kilo.
In Manila, Jessup Navarro, administrator of the National Food Authority (NFA), said the price reduction “was the result of ‘selective bombardment’ strategy, as ordered by President Gloria Arroyo and Sec. Arthur Yap of the agriculture department.
It was later learned by MINDANAO MONITOR that the NFA will push some 350,000 metric tons (MT) or seven million bags every month to maintain the rice supply and keep bringing down the prices for the rest of the year.
Navarro said that from 3,000 tons of rice, NFA increased its volume of supply in the market to 10,000-14,000 tons daily, more thanthrice the usual injection rate.
Based on PIA-9’s price watch monitoring in May, retail and wholesale prices of commercial rice, like the first grade 7-tonner, V-10, Masipag and head rice were then sold at P45-P46 a kilo.
All these varieties now dived to P39-P40 per kilo.
In the nearby Ozamiz City, the price of regular-milled rice at present is between P32-P36 a kilo while premium rice is at P40 per kilo.
Regular milled rice in Zamboanga City, which was then sold at P39 a kilo, is now P38 while in Davao City, commercial rice dropped from P38 to P36 a kilo.
NFA Provincial Operations Officer Rosalinda Pagente echoed Navarro’s declaration that rice price decline was a result of the “rice barrage” carried out by the NFA.
“The establishment of Tindahan Natin Outlets (TNO), the Institutionalized Bigasan ni Gloria Program (IBGP) and Bigasan ng Bayan Outlet (BBO)-LGU rolling stores in the municipalities helped bring down prices of commercial rice,” Pagente stressed.
Despised before, the low-priced NFA rice at present has become a favorite commodity among hard-up residents because it only costs P18.25 and P25 per kilo compared to its commercial counterpart.
Pagente adds prices of commercial rice, primarily dictated by supply and demand, may keep its drop off trend from hereon due to enough supply of palay in the locality and the onset of the harvest season.
“The NFA will inject as much as 366,480 bags into villages and marketplaces in Pagadian and the province every month in order to stabilize supplies and bring prices down,” Pagente said.
But Ozamiz City rice trader and businessman Brant See of Bryant Milling told this paper such palpable decrease in the retail and wholesale prices of commercial rice is bringing only temporary relief to consumers as the erstwhile scenario will still come back after the lean months, most probably in November.
In a telephone conversation, See acknowledged the government has infused more rice inventories in the country after the rice frenzy in May from 1.2 billion to 2.3 billion tons.
However, he said it is the farmers who are hurting over government’s shortsighted resolution on the present rice problem, explaining further that rice planters made efforts in coping up with their expected harvest with costly fertilizers and the like, only to reap at a loss because of the low buying price of palay.
Though sufficient palay stocks will be available in the coming harvest period, the buying price of P13 from the all high P18 per kilo thresher weight is not adequate to compensate the farmer’s labors, See explains.
“Tanan misaka, mahal ang abono nga gidapat unya paliton ug barato, kinsay dili moreklamo ana?” he asked.
To recall, well-milled rice reached P46-P50 per kilo in various metro cities in Mindanao amid NFA’s assurance then of ample rice supply.
The sporadic, anomalous increase of rice prices in Mindanao was widely believed to have been caused by massive rice hoarding and panic buying as provincial governors wondered how this situation came about.
One time, a rice trader in Molave, this province, blamed the media for amplifying the rice shortage problem as the unusual increase in rice prices likewise triggered long queues at NFA rice retail outlets and reports of clashes and quarrels, even killings, have cropped up over rice distribution.
Last week, in an email to NFA Director for Public Affairs Rex Estoperez by Kharren Asingua-Retiza, acting PIO of NFA-Ozamiz, she explained that the news article printed by CBCP News related to killings blamed on alleged unequal distribution of NFA rice is not true.
Retiza’s email to Estoperez, duly noted by NFA Provincial Manager Aragasi Pasandalan, a copy of which was sent to this paper, likewise narrated Gov. Loreto Ocampos’ efforts in coming up with a short-term solution to the present rice problem in Misamis Occidental.
The short term solution, as reported earlier by this paper, is Ocampos’ request for allocation of 21,000 bags for the three cities and the 14 towns of Misamis Occidental.
This, added Retiza, was in compliance to PGMA’s order to flood NFA rice in the market. “It was agreed that this program will only last three months (May-July), just to get the province over the lean season,” she said.
“Every local government unit has a certain authorized licensee who transacts with our office. Each LGU have their own scheme of distributing the rice to end consumers. This 21,000 bags approved allocation is apart from our province’s regular distribution outlets which are TNO, IBGP, TSP and rolling stores,” the letter said.
The press officer then continued mentioning the governor’s effort in creating the Misamis Occidental Rice Task Force (MORT), which looked after rice selling throughout the province and involved all the chief executives and village heads to help NFA in the said matter.
“In Misamis Occidental, we have 124 TN outlets, 24 IBGP’s, 18 BSP’s against 12 NFA personnel who tried their best to closely and regularly monitor them,” Retiza wrote.
“In Ozamiz’s 51 barangays, which are all recipients of the overall 21,000 bags, our office is jam-packed with barangay officials and regular NFA distribution outlet operators and government employees throughout the province who wanted to avail the P25 per kilo rice every month.”
“They are being served by our provincial office, which, at the moment, is undermanned,” she remarked.
In clearing up the killings happening over alleged unequal distribution of NFA rice, Retiza then said: “Blaming NFA for this worse scenario is way too unfair for our part. The provincial government and our agency are just doing its part and it’s best to have cheap rice reach the mouths of the poor.”
“The purpose is noble, but the outcomes are expected to be beyond our control, considering that every man has different attitudes,” she added.
“We therefore strongly emphasize that the cause of the incident has nothing to do with NFA’s distribution, but with personal reasons between the suspect and the victim as it was clearly stated by CBCP,” she notes.
“In this regard, we are hoping that the media, the church and the people will take time to visit our office to realize our sacrifices and our utmost desire to serve the people by all possible means,” Retiza concluded.
Last month, due to the rice shortage, a father committed suicide in Midsayap, North Cotabato.
Just last week, a purok president shot and killed a motorcab driver when the latter complained of not being listed as one of the recipients, threatening the village official with a grenade.