Arroyo blames media, critics for rice crisis
By Michael Lim Ubac
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:48:00 05/10/2008
MANILA, Philippines--Burgeoning populations and the effects of climate change have been blamed for the rice crisis, but in President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's reckoning, the media and critics of governments worldwide should be added to the list of culprits.
In a speech delivered at a luncheon meeting Friday in Malacañang with the Soroptimist International of the Philippines Region, the President defended her administration's aggressive importation of the staple grain.
And then turning to the media, she said stocking up on rice "has led to a shortage which has further been exacerbated all over the world by panic situations and hysteria created by media and political opponents in various countries."
Ms Arroyo said her administration was in a good position to face the global rice shortage in that it had the money to buy the staple, at least for this year.
She sought to allay fears that the huge subsidies being poured into the agricultural sector, including for rice imports, could take a toll on the national treasury.
"This year some [nations] will not get to buy what they want. It will not be for lack of funds, but just the sheer unavailability of rice," she said, adding:
"Buyers who bought early are the only ones with rice. Only those who come to the party leave with the party favors!"
Soroptimist is a global sociocivic organization whose mission is to make a difference for women and girls through volunteer community service work. The local Soroptimist has 82 clubs nationwide composed of around 2,000 members.
Stocking up on rice is part of national security, according to Ms Arroyo.
'Nat'l security stock'
"The importing countries make all efforts to buy [in order] to feed not only their normal requirement but also to stock up and increase their national security stock--what we call a buffer stock," she said in response to concerns expressed by Thailand and Vietnam, the world's top two rice exporters, that the Philippines' aggressive buying was driving up prices.
Ms Arroyo said the culprit for the spike in rice prices was, not her policy of continued importation, but "a combination of factors" that had "all acted together to drive up the prices of all food and feed grains."
These factors, she said, were spiraling petroleum costs, increased demand from countries like China and India, negative climatic conditions, record low closing stocks, decreasing investment over the years in productive agriculture, encroaching urbanization and diversion of agricultural land for biofuels.
Ms Arroyo reiterated her earlier assertion that she had known of the impending rice shortage early on.
"This is a global problem that we have seen coming, and I thank the secretary of agriculture and the NFA [National Food Authority] for plugging this need way before the shortage happened. We have worked to head it off for some time now."
Demand and supply
The President also talked about hunger mitigation measures involving supply (increasing food production) and demand (putting more money in people's pockets, promoting good nutrition and birth spacing).
Quoting the American statesman Adlai Stevenson, she said these measures were being implemented because "a man who is hungry is not a free man."
The Philippines, the world's top rice importer, has so far contracted 1.7 million metric tons of the staple to fill a 10-percent domestic production gap despite tight global supplies and record high prices.
Of the 1.7 million MT, 700,000 MT are already in the country, and the remainder is expected before the lean months of July to September, said Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap.
But prices have hit $1,136 per metric ton as of April, or about 60 percent higher than the tender held in March.
30-day stock
Yap said that even if the government had contracted the critical 1.7 million MT, "we must still have an eye for the worst possible case that can happen."
"That's why we must continue having a 30-day buffer stock," he said.
He added that the NFA still needed to import around 675,000 MT of rice as buffer stock for the last quarter of the year.
However, the May 5 tender for 675,000 MT failed because only one bidder, from Vietnam, submitted an offer.
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