By force of circumstance, there is now more attention given to rice. Recent news reports had a senator daring the National Food Authority to prove its worth as rice prices climb, followed by another one quoting executives of the Department of Agriculture admitting that 20 peso/kilo rice is difficult to attain.
We have 110 million Filipinos eating rice and at least 2,400,000 small farmers planting rice. Rice is central to our lives as our staple food; it is also central to our political life because it is a perennial source of problems. Yet, the rice industry remains moribund – which means literally “at the point of death.” If one concern is an apt representation of the Philippines, it is rice. By extension, then, it can be said that the Philippines is at the point of death if exasperation can only kill.
The rice industry is a major sector of Philippine economics, politics, and population. It is also a face of the Philippine future. Paint the rice industry with a positive image and we can feel that the future is secure. Because rice, like water, earth, and air, is a staple that Filipinos have adopted to be as important as the other elements of life.
Why, then, is the rice industry or sector moribund?
For the last 50 years of my life, I have been in active participation or observation of the dynamics surrounding rice in the Philippines. I have never planted rice but I have been involved in doing professional and commercial work directly connected to rice. I saw how it was in the early 70s and I see how it is today, 50 years later.
Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. from the late 60s paid great attention to rice. When its availability was low, or its prices high, he felt his administration threatened. There were instances that circumstances did produce serious challenges to rice supply and increasing rice prices. Every time he sensed this situation emerging, he acted with urgency and boldness.
It did not mean the old Marcos solved the root causes of the rice problem in the Philippines, but he managed to address some of them. His Masagana 99 program was a flagship, given funds and authority. On the side of rice production, he intervened powerfully through heavily subsidized farm inputs and a massive financing schemes for the small farmers. If Marcos then did not succeed as much as he could have, he was successful enough to avert any rice issue from causing his political downfall.
I can affirm from personal experience that the economics of rice did improve dramatically in the beginning. I can also affirm that Masagana 99 almost collapsed the rural bank industry of the Philippines. If someone dares ask the question how come a much-improved economics for the rice industry managed to almost totally destroy the rural banks financing it, I will have only one answer. Corruption.
Now, looking back at the last 50 years all the way to the last few years, there have been many major government programs that meant well but collapsed anyway. These programs were massively funded but massively drained our treasury, too, as white elephants are usually do. The proof is in the eating of the pudding – a burgeoning national debt inching towards 1 trillion pesos with a country and people not better off, except for the few at the top who make money even when no one does. What happened?? I have only one answer. Corruption.
I hope that the proponents of the Maharlika Investment Fund can review just the last 50 years of Philippine history. By doing so, they will realize why there is an intuitive distrust for great sounding plans and programs allegedly designed to help the country. Why? I only one answer. Corruption.
The past is past, many will say, and let us move on. There is great wisdom in this thought, but even greater danger. Because moving on and still saddled with everything that caused us pain and suffering is not moving on. That is being moribund, in a comatose, when moving forward has no learnings and insights to bring to the future.
So, let us move forward.
Philippine society, especially government, can begin with rice. If rice is a fair representation of the state of affairs of the country, then rice is a good beginning. What we can do with the rice industry and sector tells us what we can do for other essential industries and sectors. Begin with rice. Begin with the small rice farmer, all 2,400,000 of them and their dependents.
Bring the rice farmer to progress and the rest will follow suit. Look at Japan and their farmers, South Korea and their farmers, Taiwan and their farmers, Thailand and their farmers. They began with their farmers and the rest followed. Their formula is staring us in our faces but we do not want to look. Or we are afraid to look.
When we need water, to whom do we bargain with for supply and lower prices? When we need electricity, whom do we bargain with for supply and lower prices? When we need gasoline for vehicles and other engines, or gas to cook with, whom do we bargain for supply and lower prices? We ordinary Filipinos cannot bargain with anyone, and often enough, government has to bargain for us.
But when we need rice, when there is not enough supply, or when prices are going up, we bargain with our rice farmers. We expect from them the kind of support and submission that we cannot even imagine from the producers of water, electricity, and fuel. We bargain with small Filipino farmers who themselves need to bargain for a simple decent life for their families.
Forget the 20 peso/kilo rice. That is a fantasy bordering on a scam. It is not only difficult to attain; without heavy subsidies, it is impossible. Instead, let us pay our farmers well, secure their future, and through them, secure our own.