Enough rice and garlic, says food security chief

There is enough rice and there is enough garlic, according to Kiko Pangilinan, former senator and now presidential assistant for food security and agricultural modernization. He made the assurance to journalists last Monday at the Kapihan sa Manila at the Diamond Hotel.

There is just a “tightening” of supply, he said, meaning the supply in the markets is not as plentiful as before. The tightening may be a result of “manipulation” by unscrupulous traders hoarding their stocks until prices go up some more. Besides, these are the “lean months” before new crops are harvested. He said he expected prices to “normalize” in two or three months.

Pangilinan was joined at the Kapihan by Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, spokesperson of the opposition coalition UNA, who talked of the plans of his party and of its presidential candidate in 2016, Vice President Jejomar Binay.

On the coconut scale insect (or “cocolisap”) that has infested coconut trees in Quezon, Pangilinan said the infected fronds are being sprayed and the trunks injected with pesticide. Left unmolested, the pest will suck the fluid out of the fronds until the tree dies.

Pangilinan cited studies showing that the pest is not a native insect but was introduced into the country. It is fortunate that the infestation is confined to the province of Quezon, he said, adding that the affected area has been quarantined.

One Jose Z. Osias said in a letter to the Inquirer that 30 coconut trees infected by the “cocolisap” in Bay, Laguna, were “cured” through the use of biotechnology. Osias said biotechnologist Edgar A. Maranan told a conference how he had treated the sick trees not so much by killing the pests as by strengthening the trees’ immune system.

He said a test area in Bay had 30 unproductive coconut trees that were so badly infected that they were about to be cut into cocolumber.

After the solution was applied, “24 trees began to flower within weeks and up to 29 trees actually began to produce nuts again. The nuts were excitedly harvested by local farmers,” Osias wrote, “and a second flowering of the trees showed that all the 30 trees were saved by Maranan’s solution.”

Osias claimed to know of three other solutions shown to be effective against the pests. “All follow the same principle,” he added, “making the tree strong.”

Of course the Department of Science and Technology has to validate the claimed “solution” first.

On the garlic problem, Pangilinan said Filipino growers were planting less hectares to garlic because of the low demand and prices brought about by imports from Taiwan which are cheaper and have bigger bulbs. Philippine garlic, however, is more pungent, which is its purpose as a condiment.

Pangilinan was asked: Can’t Filipino farmers plant the Taiwan variety to be able to compete?

That will take time, he said. Our soil must first be tested to find out if it is conducive to the growth of Taiwan garlic.

And can’t biotechnology produce a breed of garlic that has the big bulbs of the Taiwan variety and the pungency of the Philippine variety?

That is a possibility, Pangilinan said.

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On UNA’s presidential candidate, Congressman Tiangco was asked whether Vice President Binay would be an opposition or administration candidate. As Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice had earlier observed, Binay is paddling in two rivers, and he should show his true colors now: Is he with the administration or with the opposition?

Tiangco replied that UNA would welcome it if Binay is chosen as the administration presidential candidate; but if not, Binay would run as the opposition party’s candidate.

But Binay has already deserted UNA and is forming his own political party, a journalist told Tiangco.

Tiangco explained it this way: UNA is a coalition of opposition political parties—PDP-Laban of which Binay is an officer, and Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino of Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada. Binay left PDP-Laban because of differences with its president, Sen. Koko Pimentel. He is forming his own political party that will coalesce with UNA.

Another journalist asked Tiangco what Binay, as the top government official in charge of housing, has done to provide housing for squatters and return the private properties that had been illegally occupied to their owners.

Tiangco tossed the blame to the Urban Development and Housing Act, the so-called “Lina Law,” which provides that squatters who were included in surveys cannot be ejected without providing them with a relocation site. He added that squatters in “danger areas” (such as those along rivers, creeks, and esteros) are being given priority in relocation.

Tiangco was asked: Does the government have the moral right to collect real estate taxes from owners whose lots have been taken over by squatters when the government is not doing anything to help them reclaim their properties from the squatters?

He replied that he would file a bill in Congress that would exempt owners of lots occupied by squatters from paying real estate taxes.