THE National Food Authority (NFA) in Manila is under fire for the excessive importation of about 2.1 million metric tons of rice for 2015, which lawmakers said jeopardizes the livelihood of some six million farmers and agricultural workers nationwide.
Bayan Muna Partylist Reps. Neri Colmenares and Carlos Isagani Zarate, who filed House Resolution 2231, on Sunday said the Department of Agriculture (DA) claimed the country has attained rice self-sufficiency, having a total rice stock inventory of 3.02 million metric tons as of June 1 this year.
The figure was 30.9 percent above the 2.31 metric tons in June last year, records from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics showed.
However, Colmenares said, despite these figures the rice importation by NFA for 2015 is at 2.1 million metric tons (MT).
He said the 2.1 million metric tons include 500,000 MT procured by NFA from Thailand and Vietnam through two rounds of government-to-government transactions; 250,000 MT programmed for the lean season; 250,000 MT as reserve volume; 300,000 MT delivery under last year's Minimum Access Volume (MAV); and 805,200 MT private sector imports from China, India, Pakistan, Australia, El Salvador, Thailand, Vietnam, and omnibus origin.
“Given the rice self-sufficiency figures provided by the DA, the approval and excessive importation of a total of 2.1 million MT in rice imports for 2015 is highly irregular and doubtful," Colmenares pointed out.
The militant lawmaker said excessive importation would have fatal consequences to the farmers. Even NFA admitted that the importation would cause the farm-gate price of palay to go down from its current price of P17 per kilo.
The excessive importation would also affect the consuming public, Colmenares added.
"The Aquino administration has been marred by its incapability to distribute rice leading to overstocking, which results not only in expiration of these stocks but in potential abuse and supply manipulation as well," Colmenares stressed.
He added: "This was the case during the sudden spike in the price of rice and other agricultural products during 2014. Seemingly, the government has not learned anything from that experience."
The Aquino administration is likewise marred by slow rice distribution that is why despite the record-setting importation, the consuming public did not benefit from sustainable rice inventories, particularly in the country's critical areas, according to Colmenares.
Zarate, meanwhile, noted that no less than President Aquino questioned the excessive rice importation during the Arroyo administration during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA). Yet, Zarate said, the situation worsened during his term.
Zarate pushed for the congressional inquiry, saying "it is the primordial duty of Congress to partake in measures or actions that would ensure not only food security to the public, but also their protection from those who try to abuse our resources."
He said the House Committee on Agriculture and Food and the Special House Committee on Food Security should conduct an inquiry and summon officials of NFA, the Bureau of Customs and the Food Security Council to clarify issues relative to the importation and the country's rice self-sufficiency.
"It is highly heeded that the NFA, the BOC and the FSC be made to clarify whether or not the pronouncement made by Agriculture Secretary Prospero Alcala that the country is self-sufficient is true or not," Zarate concluded.
