How much per kilo?
Let me talk about rice. I am swayed by so much recent news about rice, all types of news, some good, mostly not. Is it 20 pesos-per-kilo rice? Or is it the 25 pesos-per-kilo that a few government outlets are selling every so often? Or maybe the most recent 38 pesos per kilo that a rice producers association is announcing to make available in selected areas with a maximum number of kilos per buyer until stocks run out? But, mostly, let us remember the actual price of 40 – 45 pesos-per-kilo available in most markets in the Philippines.
So, which is which?
If we want facts and the truth, we have to eliminate the worst fake news, which is the budol price of 20 pesos-per-kilo. My memory does not include a promise from candidate Marcos, Jr. to sell rice at 20 pesos per kilo. At best, it could only have been a wish, fantastical it may have been. I remember some lame statements from Department of Agriculture (DA) officials early in the new presidency that there was never a promise, just an intention if it could be possible.
The problem is that the 20 pesos per kilo had been heavily promoted during the campaign as a presidential candidate’s promise – and no denial was ever made at that time by the candidate or his camp. In other words, even if he never promised it himself, he allowed it to be believed. If he was not responsible for the attempt to fool the people, he sure was not trying to tell people that it was all fake, a troll effort, a grand scam.
Instead of putting it at rest, the scam was further promoted when DA officials said it was possible, and it was possible within a short time. Even today, some of these officials are doubling down on the 20 peso-per-kilo possibility, which they know is an impossibility UNLESS rice is heavily subsidized from production to retail price. Not willing to tell the truth in case their acting Secretary of Agriculture will be proven to be wrong, a few outlets are selling rice at 25 pesos-per-kilo, 4 kilos maximum per buyer, up to 50 buyers a day.
If we have around 26 million Filipino families today, and half of them claim to be food-poor, then 13 million families are wanting to buy rice at 25 pesos-per-kilo at least weekly. They will be deeply disappointed when the few outlets selling at that level can only do so for a maximum of 50 families per outlet per day. It seems some officials would rather give false hopes than undeniable facts. After all, how many can they serve at 25 pesos-per-kilo just so they can fool millions of other families to wait for nothing?
It is not the fault of the present occupant in Malacañang that rice prices are at that level. If he only can, he will want to lower the price of rice to 20 pesos-per-kilo, not just 25 pesos. But he cannot unless he wants to completely bankrupt rice farmers. I had thought that importation was the answer, but even that is not true as well. A lot of our rice being sold today is imported, but they are selling for 40 pesos-per-kilo or more. Is that their true cost? I do not know, but the importer and the DA officials should. Who wants to ask them?
I realize it is a serious challenge to help small rice farmers earn a little, and maybe impossible for them to earn well. Marcos, Jr. cannot turn back the hands of time and sell rice at 20 pesos-per-kilo unless he heavily subsidizes either the farmer or the sellers of rice. Unfortunately, he applied for the job and he has to find the elusive formula on how to break the poverty of small rice farmers.
What can help Marcos, Jr. is to tell the naked truth, to openly tell the Filipino people the reality of higher production costs and possible lower productivity. I know there are more rice consumers than rice farmers, and politics assume that consumers can overthrow a government faster than small and poor rice farmers. But drive rice farmers to hunger and they will run to the hills. And no one should take my word for it. Ask the military; they should know better.
The truth may be harsh but, again, that is not the doing of Marcos, Jr. It is the running total of neglect, of lack of vision and leadership, of corruption inside and outside the government agencies involved in rice, and most of all, the little importance we give our small rice farmers. It appears that government, past and present, believe it is a competition between rice producer and rice consumer – and end up playing one against the other. Finally, that means favoring the consumer over the producer. Sorry, rice farmer.
Unless a grand vision puts farmer and consumer as full partners, and a flagship program to run for ten years or more in developing sustainability and prosperity for farmers to ensure constant supply at stable prices. Why is it that when fuel prices go up, much faster and higher than rice, we all accept it – painfully but realistically. Why can Filipinos not be made to understand that, if they want rice even at the worst of times around the world, Filipino farmers will be there to produce it.
Filipino consumers cannot understand that because they believe that nothing is more important than the money they have to pay for essential products. For water, for electricity, for gas and oil, for transportation, they adjust as best they can. But for millions of Filipino farmers and their families, can we not understand, can we not sympathize?
Facing the same problem for decades, I hope government finally attempts a final solution.
