Political Tidbits
The rice crisis
By Belinda Olivares-Cunanan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:31:00 03/19/2008
A BLESSED Holy Week, and a glorious Easter in advance to all my readers. May the abundant graces from the suffering Christ, as well as from the risen Christ, bring us all not just a much-needed respite from political turbulence but also plenty of hope that greater peace, harmony and understanding would descend on our people.
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The Inquirer's banner headline about President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's decision to import an unprecedented amount of rice from Vietnam only highlights what this column had been saying: the real crisis is not the ZTE or Spratlys but rice. International Rice Research Institute deputy director William Padolina, a recent guest in the dzRH program that Cecile Alvarez and I co-host every Sunday evening, pointed out the twin concern of worldwide rice shortage and the rising price of available rice. Congress should focus on these concerns instead of the corruption allegations that cannot stand in court. Congress and the Executive should cooperate on how to ease this problem. One good measure is to allocate more funds for more irrigation facilities, so that our rice fields can yield bigger harvests. Congress should also tighten penalties on price manipulation and hoarding.
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This column earlier cited the World Food Program's observation that global rice stocks are at a 20-year low while rice prices have surged to a 20-year high. This has prompted leading rice suppliers, such as Vietnam, India and Egypt, to restrict exports in order to keep their local markets well-stocked and their domestic prices under control. One reason offered for the global rice shortage, aside from climate change and natural calamities, is the rapid income growths in Asia which have jacked up the demand for rice.
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News reports say that Thai rice prices, a global benchmark, surged above the level of $500 a ton for the first time in nearly 20 years, while US rice in Chicago, the benchmark for the world's fourth-largest exporter, jumped by about 75 percent in the past year. The ironic thing is, even if a nation has lots of money, time may come when it cannot buy rice because the traditional exporters no longer want to sell outside.
We should turn our attention to the looming world shortage; practicable measures can be pushed in a nationwide campaign. My sister-in-law, Neomi Tanedo Olivares, suggests that hotels, restaurants, cafeterias and canteens be advised against issuing too much rice to customers, as much of it ends up in the garbage bins. On the home-front, we can avoid wastage of rice.
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A bad habit of mine is failing to send someone for my mail on a regular basis. As a result, I often fail to get on time significant invitations or letter-reactions. A letter from Pangasinan's second district Rep. Victor Agbayani shares some thoughts regarding the Feb. 5 voting that ousted his provincemate Jose de Venecia from the House speakership.
In a column, I had cited the courage and principles of neophyte representatives, among them Agbayani, for casting their lot with JDV despite uncertain prospects regarding pork barrel allocations--and amid allegations of vote-buying in the chamber. In his letter Agbayani said he cast his vote "with what became a small minority of 35 members who stood their ground and voted against the motion to declare the seat of the Speaker vacant." Stressing that he saw "no patriotic reason to change the leadership of the House," Agbayani said that the stability and, consequently, the effectivity of the chamber have been seriously undermined "because the main movers of the coup against JDV would be demanding their just rewards in committee chairmanships and leadership positions."
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Agbayani enclosed a copy of the speech he delivered on June 14, 2007 at the unveiling of the monument built, at the Capitol grounds in Lingayen, Pangasinan, in honor of his late father, former congressman and governor Aguedo Agbayani. In his speech, young Agbayani related how in 1957, the year he was born, the young couple Aguedo and Teresita Agbayani wrestled with the question of whether or not his father should run for the congressional seat of Pangasinan's first district. A major concern for them was whether they could thrive in politics "where even basic principles can be the subject of compromise." Victor said his parents eventually made that fateful decision to enter public service, but not without making a solemn agreement between the two of them "that if the time came when political survival would entail sacrificing one's principles, then it would also be time for them to leave politics."
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Victor noted that five decades later, politics may have changed into a form so different, "perhaps unrecognizable to the generation of Papang," when "a man's worth was measured by his loyalty and word of honor, and one's vote and the ballot were sacred." Today, said the young Agbayani, "loyalty, one's vote and the ballot are instruments of trade." He then quoted from his father's first inaugural address as governor (1971), wherein he pledged to govern with "a leadership that conceives of public office as a trust, not a privilege; as a duty, not as power; as a responsibility, not authority; and as an instrument of service to the people, not for self-aggrandizement."
Such reminder is timely, for surely there are many good and decent citizens who could throw their hat into the political ring and help restore to politics its old badge of honor; but they are afraid to join politics because of the prevailing lack of principles today among our politicians--and the gargantuan expense that running for office entails. This Easter season we can only hope for more propitious times in politics.
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