CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Children of street vendors joined their parents in a noise barrage here Wednesday to express their dismay over not being able to go to school because of the high price of rice.

“We can’t continue attending school anymore because our parents’ income are only enough to buy rice,” said one placard held by a 9-year-old boy, who stopped going to school.

The protest was held even as Mayor Constantino Jaraula announced that the National Food Authority (NFA) would soon sell rice in villages to ease the queue in market-based NFA outlets.

Members of the Coalition for the Recognition and Empowerment of Street Vendors Association (Cresva) said despite the assurance from government officials on the availability of cheap rice, they staged the noise barrage because prices continued to soar.

Some rice varieties are now being sold for P54 per kg here.

Banging empty pots and shouting “We are going hungry!”, vendors urged the government to release funds for rice subsidy and blamed corruption for their misery.

Efie Medio, Cresva chair, said at least 20 percent of the group’s members will stop sending their children to school this year because most of their day’s income is only enough to buy rice for two meals.

“Education has become our least priority. We only earn more or less P100 per day and half of that is spent for only 1 kilo of rice. There’s just not enough money to send our children to school,” he said.

The Department of Education regional office has not released official enrollment figures but parents enrolling their children in the City Central School here observed a low turnout.

“Many of my neighbors did not enroll at least one of their children,” said Erlinda Dumayon, mother of a Grade 5 pupil.

Teachers said some pupils who they were expecting to turn up for enrollment did not come.

But they said there was still time to enroll next week and other pupils may just be waiting for the last day before they list up for the school year.

In Cotabato City, the NFA said it would start flooding the markets with cheap government rice this week to pull down the price of commercial rice.

Similar moves were also being done in Southern Mindanao, a rice-producing region where prices of commercial rice had gone past the P50 level in recent days.

But while prices of commercial rice were skyrocketing, organic rice was being sold in Davao City for P35 per kg.

At the 5th Street Café, which sells organic rice, the queue was surprisingly short, unlike in NFA stores.

“I like the rice here. It’s cheap compared to the rice sold at the stores and at NFA stalls. My grandchildren also like the taste of the rice here…the store owner told me that it’s chemical free,” 67-year-old Carmen Duarte, a rice cake vendor from Toril district, said.

Tina Delima, marketing officer of the Sustainable Integrated Area Development in Mindanao Convergence for Asset Reform and Regional Development (Siad-Simcarrd), said more and more people have discovered organic rice.

In another store selling organic rice – the Bios Dynamis Health Food Center – the demand for organic rice has also surprisingly increased since the prices of commercial rice soared.

May Fabiolas, store keeper of Bios Dynamis, said from June 1-5, they have already sold about 100 bags of rice, or close to a month’s rice distribution.

“There was really a significant increase because of the affordability of the rice we are selling. And people are also starting to recognize the importance of eating organic rice,” Fabiolas said.

Bios Dynamis, along Quimpo Boulevard here, is being run by the Don Bosco Foundation for Sustainable Development, Inc. (DBFSD), a nongovernment organization promoting organic farming in Mindanao.

Tom Villarin, executive director of the Siad-Simcarrd, explained the low prices.

“Our inputs did not go up – like the organic fertilizer, which is only P195 per sack. The seeds that are traditional are kept by the farmers and the communal irrigation in the upland farms did not need irrigation,” Villarin said.

In Davao del Sur, a farmers’ group lambasted the Department of Agriculture (DA) for blaming farmers for the soaring rice prices. Ma. Cecilia Rodriguez, Charlie Señase, Orlando Dinoy, Jeffrey Tupas, Ryan Rosauro, Chris Panganiban, Ma. Cecilia Rodriguez, Aquiles Zonio and Eldie S. Aguirre with a report from Joselle R. Badilla, Inquirer Mindanao