Fighting rice hoarders, smugglers

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Amid talks of rice shortage, the National Food Authority has assured the public that the office has ample rice supply in its warehouses in the country. The move is aimed at ensuring that rice bags bought from NFA warehouses will reach their intended accredited outlets or destinations.

We understand that global supplies of rice were adversely affected by the cold spell in Vietnam and China, two of the biggest rice producers in the world on which our country relies for their export.

In Negros Oriental, officials are now strictly monitoring the delivery of NFA rice to its accredited outlets to prevent their delivery to unscrupulous rice hoarders. There are currently 40,000 bags in the NFA warehouse and this is sufficient to meet the rice demand in the province.

There have been allegations in some provinces that NFA rice bags from the warehouse do not reach the accredited outlets as they are sold along the way to some businessmen.

Even the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines is supporting the NFA rice distribution scheme. The scheme used in Manila will be duplicated all over the country, especially in depressed areas where most of the poorest of the poor are found.

The community should support the method of NFA rice distribution in the province with rice bags containing three to five kilos to be sold in depressed areas and other places whose residents are in the DSWD list of qualified buyers.

At the same time, however, we hope, with many others in the country, that the rice shortage is real, and not just a divertionary tactic employed by the Malacañang think tank to draw attention from other issues of corruption and scandals.*