MANILA, Philippines--CONSIDER THE CATHOLIC Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines ready, willing and able to help solve the touted rice crisis.

If there is such a crisis, let’s harness an alternative staple, like corn or camote (sweet potato), the CBCP president, Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, said yesterday.

And apart from searching for alternatives to the precious grain, Lagdameo said, the bishops and the Department of Agriculture could enter into terms of collaboration where National Food Authority rice may be distributed through the network of the CBCP’s social action arm, the National Secretariat of Social Action (Nassa).

“I’ve heard and read that some people mix corn with rice, which is naturally more satisfying,” Lagdameo said in an interview over Church-run Radio Veritas.

He said other alternatives were “vegetables, which can be eaten even without rice,” and camote.

Unreasonable costs

“If we are really suffering from a [rice] shortage, this should be a challenge for us to think of different alternatives. Our land is rich. That is why we need to discover and harness our natural resources,” Lagdameo added.

He called on the business sector to help ensure food security by cutting prices to affordable levels or by raising workers’ wages to give them more purchasing power.

Nassa executive director Sr. Rosanne Malillin is not convinced that there is an actual rice crisis and describes the abrupt price increases as “unreasonable.”

In a statement posted on the CBCP website, Malillin said that on her recent trips to Cagayan and Bicol in Luzon and General Santos City in southern Mindanao, she saw rice farmers harvesting their crops and speculated, “Probably, some people have seriously projected how much money [they] would make by increasing the price of rice.”

Nevertheless, she said, the proposed partnership between the government and the Catholic Church would assure everyone of a steady and affordable supply of the national staple.

Malillin said the proposal was explored following the revocation of the licenses of several Tindahan Natin stores, which had reportedly mixed NFA rice with commercial rice in Metro Manila markets.

Pan de sal next

She said Nassa’s role would be to identify the parishes agreeable to the idea and determine their willingness to take part in the rice distribution.

With rice prices continuing to escalate because of minimal supplies in the market, bakery owners in San Pablo City are grappling with the rising cost of flour, oil, sugar and salt.

The probable result, according to Kristina de las Alas, 60, owner of Choleng Bakery, was a hike in the price of bread products, especially pan de sal, by next week.

There are now 14 big bakeries in San Pablo proper and scores of similar establishments throughout the city.

Only recently, the price of first-class flour was P850 a sack. Today, that kind of flour costs from P900 to P1,100, said De las Alas.

The price of a 17-kilogram container of oil has risen from P850 to P1,000; sugar, from P1,050 to P1,250 a bag; and firewood, from P150-P180 to P300 per cubic foot.

De las Alas admitted that the business, which she inherited from her late mother Choleng, was not as brisk as when she first took it over.

“In 1996, I used up about 15 to 18 sacks of flour daily, but this went down to 10 to 11 sacks, until the present seven to eight sacks,” she said.

Pan de sal in Choleng’s Bakery currently sells at P1 each.

Rice retailers in San Pablo continue to complain about limited supplies.

Aileen Panganiban told the Inquirer that her elder sister, Aida Titular, used to buy two sacks of rice regularly from a trader in Lipa City.

But Titular has been told by the Lipa trader that he could allow only up to 25 kg per buyer because rice stocks were being delivered only every four days.

Corn rises by P6/kilo

In many parts of Davao del Sur, corn has always been considered the poor family’s staple.

But over the weekend, consumers of milled corn were surprised to see that prices had risen by an average of P6 a kilo from last week’s P17 to 18 a kilo.

Donna Gantuanco, who had switched from rice to milled corn, said ordinary milled corn was now retailing at P23 a kilo, and premium varieties such as Aguila, at P25 a kilo.

A disgusted Marvin Laganere, another consumer of milled corn, said his family might just have to subsist on boiled banana and camote.

Nelson Lastimon said corn retailers like himself had to raise prices because their suppliers were now selling at a higher cost—from P960 to P967.50 a 50-kg sack.

Anita Legaspi, another retailer, said consumers of milled corn should brace for even higher prices.

She said suppliers had warned them that another price increase might be implemented next week.

Lastimon and Legaspi said suppliers attributed the increased prices to the low supply.

Henry Sorongon, who owns a corn-milling business, confirmed this, saying the decreasing deliveries of whole-kernel corn from farmers was the main reason behind the high prices.

Corn planter Ronnie Papna told the Inquirer that the reason for the dwindling supply could be the decision of many farmers to shift to other crops. With reports from Romulo Ponte, Inquirer Southern Luzon; Orlando Dinoy and Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao