‘Callous,’ farmers say of new rice importation

LUCENA CITY—The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) assailed the National Food Authority (NFA) for pushing through with the importation of 500,000 metric tons of rice that would enter the country in time for harvests in October.

“It is the height of callousness [on the part] of the Aquino government and the NFA to clinch a 500,000-MT rice importation deal with Thailand and Vietnam while rice farmers of northern Luzon are busy saving what is left by Typhoon ‘Luis’ in their rice paddies,” KMP chair Rafael Mariano said in a statement on Tuesday.

Mariano said the Aquino administration had resorted to rice importation instead of helping rice farmers recover from the typhoon by actively buying locally produced palay, extending production subsidy, putting a moratorium on land rent and land amortization and scrapping irrigation service fees.

He said the recent typhoon was an “unacceptable justification” for another rice importation deal even for the NFA’s program to create buffer stocks.

Mariano said the importation was useless since it was already near the harvest season and it would pull down the farm gate price of palay during harvests next month.

In Monday’s auction, Thailand offered the lowest price at $475 per metric ton for the government-to-government procurement of 500,000 MT of rice meant as buffer stock for this year to be delivered in three installments between October and December.

Thailand would supply 300,000 MT while Vietnam, the second lowest bidder, would deliver the remaining 200,000 MT at the price offered by Thailand.

On Aug. 27, the government failed to secure acceptable offers for its planned importation of 500,000 MT as the tender conducted by the NFA yielded bids with prices higher than the approved budget for the contracts.

Mariano said the continued deluge of imported rice into the country benefited only a cartel of rice dealers that manipulate prices and corrupt officials from the Department of Agriculture and the NFA who siphon off public funds in the form of kickbacks.

Former NFA chief Orlan 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 bidding, a violation of the antigraft law.