Food riots in Philippines an ‘alien concept’--solons
By Maila Ager
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 14:38:00 04/14/2008
Filed Under: Agriculture, Food, rice problem
MANILA, Philippines -- An “alien concept” was how an administration ally at the House of Representatives described the possibility of a rice riot in the country.
“Rice can be imported but a rice riot is an alien concept which can’t be imported here,” Palawan Representative Abraham Mitra said in a statement on Monday.
“Filipinos are mature enough to know that you can’t cook rice by burning the rice warehouse down,” he said.
Any farmer, Mitra said, could also attest that mayhem has never been a rice production input.
“All the shouting will not make rice sprout on the streets. People know that on the first sign of disturbance, traders will no longer truck rice, and stores will shut down,” he pointed out.
Mitra was reacting to a warning issued by an official of the International Monetary Fund that the soaring prices of food might lead to war and could cause trade imbalance, especially in many developing countries.
While he welcomed the IMF warning, Speaker Prospero Nograles pointed out that it was jus a warning and not exclusive to the Philippines.
“IMF food warning is timely and well taken. It’s just a warning,” Nograles said.
“But we ought to know that this shortage is not exclusive [to the Philippines] but [it’s a] worldwide problem. It’s food terrorism,” he said.
“The countries that have more food,” Nograles said, would “terrorize those who don’t. We can’t be at their mercy.”
Nograles then reiterated his call for big profitable corporations to go into corporate farming so they could feed their own employees.
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