After the revered Jesse Robredo, we haven’t heard a single government official stand firmly for the “daang matuwid” until Assistant Secretary Dante Delima of the Department of Agriculture stood by the millions of rice farmers in their pursuit of rice self-sufficiency for our country through the daang matuwid (“Agri exec hits Neda, DBM over rice policy,” Inquirer, 3/2/13).
Delima, the national coordinator of the DA’s Agri-Pinoy Rice Program, is a rare example of a courageous and kindhearted technocrat. We totally support his call against rice importation. The policy allowing rice importation could spell the end of our local rice industry on which 15 million Filipino rice farmers and their dependents depend for survival.
The plan to abolish the National Food Authority (NFA), our country’s premier food agency, will similarly quash all aspirations to attain rice self-sufficiency.
Rice importation and the NFA abolition are schemes being pushed by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM); they are the antithesis of President Aquino’s philosophy of daang matuwid governance.
By all means, put behind bars all those who unlawfully benefited from rice importation; on this, President Aquino has our support to get rid of all the crooks inside the NFA. But we
believe it is only through the original structure of the NFA that Filipinos will be assured of affordable rice, and a stable supply.
There is no question that if the NFA is abolished and its functions turned over to the private sector—big businesses and profiteers—rice prices will increase and the poor will no longer be able to afford commercial rice in the market.
Governments elsewhere in the world pursue food security for their people as their highest priority. Food security means the assurance of a stable supply of quality and affordable food, especially in the Philippines where nearly half of the population are poor. According to the most recent government survey, 25 million Filipinos live on $1 or around P40 a day. Our government, therefore, ought to augment its investment in strengthening the NFA and the agriculture sector to ensure rice self-sufficiency.
—ROMAN M. SANCHEZ,
national president,
National Food Authority
Employees Association (NFA-EA),
Philsugin Building, North Avenue,
Diliman, Quezon City;
nfa_ea@yahoo.com