KMP raises alarm on more rice imports

LUCENA CITY—The militant farmers’ group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) assailed the latest government plan to import another 1.2 million metric tons of rice this year.

KMP chair Rafael Mariano said the National Food Authority (NFA) was set to import another 1.2 million MT of rice on top of what it had already imported to cushion the impact of rising prices.

Mariano said the Aquino administration “is deaf to the call of Filipino rice farmers to stop rice importation.”

KMP said the importation continued even as the investigation of billions of pesos worth of questionable rice importation during the term of former NFA chief Orlan Calayag had yet to be concluded.

“Now, here comes another rice importation scheme to again use government coffers,” Mariano said.

Calayag and his special assistant, Dennis Guerrero, have been placed under investigation for allegedly granting a P1-billion rice cargo-handling contract to a trucking company without a bidding being conducted, a violation of the antigraft law.

The questionable contract covered the 800,000-MT importation of rice from Vietnam last April.

Low farm gate prices

With the new round of rice importation, Mariano said rice harvests in October were likely to suffer from a decline in farm gate prices.

“With the incoming flood of the huge volume of imported rice during the harvest season, the farm gate price of newly harvested local rice will be gravely affected,” he said.

“Even if you exclude the additional importation, the volume that we will import this year is close to 2 million MT,” KMP said in a statement.

“That is higher than the 2010 importation volume under [former President Gloria Macapagal] Arroyo, whom President Aquino criticized for over-importation,” the group said.

2M metric tons

By Mariano’s count, the total importation this year will reach close to 2 million MT— 200,000 MT more than last year’s importation, which was delivered earlier this year.

“The NFA cannot invoke low buffer stock as a reason. If the buffer stock is low, the NFA should be more competitive and buy from local farmers more instead of resorting to importation,” he said.

“Clearly, somebody is making money from this importation spree,” Mariano added.

Mariano said that with the over-importation, the government’s claim of 96-percent rice self-sufficiency had become unbelievable.

“Perhaps the only one who believes this claim is Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala. If they insist on 96 percent, does that mean all this importation—and this is not yet including smuggled rice—is meant to address only the 4-percent gap,” he said

“That 96 percent is a big question mark and we challenge the DA (Department of Agriculture) to explain how it arrived at that figure,” Mariano added.