Group tells NFA: Don't restrict access to cheap rice

MANILA, Philippines - Militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on Wednesday scored the National Food Authority (NFA) for pulling out subsidized rice from markets, especially at this time of high costs of living. In a statement released before a planned protest rally in front of the NFA office in Quezon City, Bayan said these times of high prices of basic commodities call for expanding people's access to cheap rice, instead of restricting it. "The pullout of subsidized NFA rice from public markets will surely perpetuate the hunger that many poor Filipino families now face. Especially at these times of double-digit inflation, the government should even be expanding the access of people to cheap rice instead of limiting it," Bayan spokesman Arnold Padilla said. Bayan also reiterated its demand to impose price controls on rice, dismantle the rice cartel, and strengthen the role of the NFA in the whole rice sector. The group said these moves will ensure that affordable rice is available to the people especially the poor. NFA announced recently that its P18.25 per kilogram subsidized rice shall be sold only to around 350,000 poor families in Metro Manila holding Family Access Cards (FAC). The scheme will supposedly ensure that affordable rice will go to families who really need assistance from the government. But Bayan said such move will marginalize millions of families who are also poor. "Only families earning P5,000 a month or less are entitled to the access card in NCR. How about those whose monthly income is less than P10,000 which according to the government itself is the current amount needed in Metro Manila to be considered not poor?" Padilla asked. He said these poor families will be forced to purchase the P25/kilo rice, which is also subsidized but is still hardly affordable to the poor. Padilla also questioned the government's argument that limiting the distribution of rice will get rid of long queues for subsidized rice. "Given the huge increases in prices not only of rice but of other food items and other goods and services while incomes barely improved, even families whom government does not consider poor could no longer afford even the cheapest commercial rice sold at around P30 a kilo. Thus they will compete with families marginalized by the pullout of the P18.25 rice," Padilla said. The bottom line is that the Arroyo regime does not have the policies to effectively deal with the problem of soaring rice prices, he said. "Worse, the measures that the government has been implementing threaten to aggravate the hunger and poverty that our people face," he said. The group also emphasized that the long-term solution to the rice crisis is the reversal of globalization policies on agriculture and the implementation of a genuine agrarian reform program that will allow Filipino farmers to produce food for domestic requirements well as other needs of the economy. - GMANews.TV