"Look who’s back."
"Look who’s back."
We resume column writing in the midst of a host of “hot” issues across the board. But the ‘mostest’ of all, as our neighbourhood pundit would put it, are Rice (closest to the stomach), SEAG (closest to a breakdown) and Leni (closest to a put down). So I promised him and members of our regular “caucus” I will say something about these concerns in this my first column after almost a year of absence.
On Rice. So much has been said and so many have chimed in on this issue before, during and after the enactment into law of the rice tariffication bill shepherded principally by Senator Cynthia Villar. Early on, we noted that the manner in which the matter was being debated about already put our rice farmers and the local rice industry in a bind.
To begin with, there was a persistent push for full and untrammelled importation despite the safeguard clauses provided for under the World Trade Organization guidelines and our own Safeguard Measures Act. It was as if the industry had been a sheer failure and our farmers a heavily subsidized bunch who would be better off transported from the farms to some other sector out there never mind their having nursed their patch of land to productive use despite the odds and, of course, the need for food security of sorts for a galloping population. To seal this highly questionable initiative, the NFA was left to its own devices devoid of any fighting chance to undertake its original mandate as the balancer-of-sorts in an increasingly “dog-eat-dog” free market environment beloved of the regime’s economic team.
And that was just for starters. We learned that the government’s agricultural productivity enhancement program for which billions of pesos have been allocated annually has been less than activated. Almost non-existent was how some farmers groups have described it. Thus, instead of providing for reasonably priced inputs, i.e., seeds, fertilizer, pesticide, etc., and low to interest-free funding support plus the promised tractors, threshers and other farm equipments, government bureaucrats tweedled their thumbs and looked up to the heavens as the seasons passed by. It is a fact that last year was probably the worst year for our rice farmers as the debate over the fate of the industry was embedded in what a lot of people now believe was a contrived “rice shortage” play by powerful forces which ultimately forced President Duterte to give in and sign this now very flawed tariffication law.
But all is not lost. President Duterte and Agriculture Secretary William Dar can still salvage the situation even as Senator Villar and her chorus continue to insist that the law stays as is since it will, in the long run, enhance the farmers’ lot. Our neighborhood pundit and his agriculture expert (Yes, sir, he has access to experts!) have come out with a suggestion which may balance things out, as it were, and somehow put some sanity back into play. The suggestion is for all registered importers to purchase part of their lot locally. If, for example, they have been given a permit to import one million tons of rice they should be obliged to purchase an additional 30 percent more from local farmers so their total lot will be 1.3 million tons, which will be made available at any given time to the market. That way, prices can be stabilized, importers will be disciplined (in a way) and our farmers incentivized to stay on the land and enhance their productivity and their standing in society. The mechanics of this operation will still have to be ironed out but to my mind this is one initiative which Secretary Dar should seriously consider endorsing to the President even if members of the so-called economic team may frown at it. It will save us and our farmers from a lot of whimsical and even laughable suggestions from people who should know better.
On SEAG. Even as I agree that with just three days before the formal opening of the Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) that we should observe some kind of ceasefire on the issues raised over our handling of the games, there are a number of things we simply have to remind the organizers. Take care please that the arrangements for the facilities (both the venues and the lodging places) and the transport services are set and running. With five to seven venues scattered all over, this is a nightmare waiting to happen given the experience of those who came in earlier than most of the delegations. It is bad enough that there are still finishing touches being worked out this late hour, it is doubly problematic to have issues about food, bathrooms and, yes, transport, pester as the days roll on.
May I also suggest for the organizers to just let the usual critics, do-gooders maybe a better word, do their worst. No need to get into this give-and-take put down which has been going on since the “caldero” days at the Senate and just plod on do the best we can as host of the games. There will be a time and a place for all these needed reckoning. At this point, what is needed is for all of us the critics included to come around and show to our visitors that we can be responsible and gracious hosts. We simply cannot afford to quibble about things. Let’s focus on our hosting and, equally, if not more importantly give our athletes all the assistance and inspiration they deserve to haul more medals and gain more records.
On Leni. Well, what can I say except Sayang. What could have been the start of a working relationship between the administration and what’s left of the opposition—shorn of unwarranted politicking—on this critical national endeavor against illegal drugs has been shattered. Probably until the end of this administration’s term. Now the attacks, especially from the opposition, will be shriller and probably more outrageous given the record of their efforts over the past three years. How the administration will react bears watching. But there is no question that the tit-for-tat will probably be more frequent and raucous which can only make those who are into the illegal drugs trade, in and out of politics (and yes, the security forces), more wayward and brazen in their ways. We should all be prepared to handle the damage it can cause the country down to the littlest barangays out there.
A lot of lessons learned will now be the subject of intense discussions from both sides of the divide. At this point, whether in fact PRRD overplayed his card and did not think things through when he offered the ICAD post to Leni is of no moment. Suffice it to say that he can now rightly say that he gave her and by implication the opposition and their chorus a chance to serve with him in eradicating this cancer but they proved to be wanting in many ways. He can count those ways and he will be listened to. After all, in the latest survey, 82 percent of all Filipinos approved of the manner by which the administration has pursued the ‘war on drugs’. In fact, PRRD can cite the statements made by Leni in the two and a half weeks she was with ICAD like “Operation Tokhang was OK pala it just needed a make over, a question of branding” or some such remarks as she convened meetings with all kinds of people and groups parading her new platform-of-sorts.
Of course, Leni can counter strongly as well as she did with her fighting words in the press conference she called a day after her sacking. But she will be called out with a host of questions once she reveals as she said she will what she “learned” in the days she was up there presiding at meetings. What kind of information or solution can she or her group come up with at this point which they have not exposed over the past three years they have been denouncing PRRD to high heavens. If she will be telling the same old stories or recoiling with her victimhood stance, then she will be called out as wanting.
Indeed, these are times of not just of telling but more of testing. We await with bated breath who will be found wanting and wasted.
