Food riots likely to break out, warns communist leader
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 13:16:00 04/17/2008
Filed Under: Conflicts (general), Protest, rice problem
MANILA, Philippines -- Collective protests are likely to break out because of food shortage and soaring prices, a spokesman for the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) warned, citing riots in other countries that have also been caused by the crisis.
"The people are hungry and restless. Millions are bound to explode in collective protest against the Arroyo regime," Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal said in a statement Tuesday, referring to food riots in Haiti and Bangladesh as well as the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) warning of war in several places.
He added that the administration's officials were mistaken in assuming that food riots would not happen despite widespread restlessness over increasing prices and government rice rations.
"The fact is, the Filipino people, especially the broad masses of workers, peasants and semi-proletarians, are outraged by the sharp increase in the price of rice and how they are made to suffer long queues to buy cheaper rice in military-guarded outlets of the National
Food Authority," Rosal said.
Soaring rice prices in the country have been caused by worldwide trade liberalization supported by the Arroyo administration, the spokesman said, adding that the rice crisis is a result of the commercialization of agricultural lands.
"[President] Gloria [Macapagal] Arroyo is chiefly responsible for the conversion of large swathes of rice and agricultural lands to now-abandoned subdivisions or to planting crops for export," Rosal said.
He pointed out that Arroyo's enactment of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) during her term as a senator as well as the membership of the country to the World Trade Organization has been used by "imperialist" countries to remove state subsidies and convert agricultural lands to real estate.
"Ultimately, Gloria Arroyo is chiefly responsible for the conversion of large swathes of rice and agricultural lands to now-abandoned subdivisions or to planting crops for export," he said.
These acts, Rosal said, have caused the country to depend on imports and subject the local value of rice to world trade policies causing the bankruptcy of rice producers.
"She has been the champion of imperialist globalization that is at the root of the current rice crisis," he said.
Camille Diola, Contributor
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