Plaudits to NFA

The National Food Authority deserves plaudits for having brought down the price of commercial rice in the retail market here. It only injected the necessary amount of cereals to prod the commercial rice traders that it doesn’t pay to manipulate rice prices.

Of course, the other side is that the traders, themselves, equally deserved tribute for not taking advantage of the situation by hoarding or victimizing the average householders.

While the ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol had validated that claim of the NFA general manager, I also did my own checking. That was when I stumbled into a trove of red rice at the Organic Food Market behind the provincial capitol. And discovered that red rice is still pegged as P35 a kilo. In short, the top of the line grains have not gone up in price.

Okay, it’s time we also pause from our litany of criticisms against government and give credit to whom it is due. Thanks to Secretary of Agriculture Arthur Yap who has been doing great guns in trying to stem the rice crisis.

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We must bow our heads in shame. It seems that several Filipino medics with the connivance of American veterans had swindled the Pentagon of more than $100 million over the past decade through bogus medical claims.

Worse, the culprits included local hospitals and clinics. One Filipino physician, Dr. Diogenes Dionisio, was reportedly arrested earlier this year when he arrived in Guam for a vacation. He has pleaded not guilty for allegedly submitting $2 million in fraudulent claims.

Seventeen people have been convicted so far in the secret investigation into the scam.

Although it did not mention names, I suppose the Associated Press will later mention them. Especially the personnel of these-called Health Visions Corp. which operated hospitals and clinics in the Philippines.

Some of those involved were reportedly retirees themselves who enjoyed the bonanza which included raising claims for medical services by as much as 2,000 percent.

Thomas Lutz, the former Visions Corp. president, had reportedly pleaded guilty of his kickback scheme role and could get five years in prison.

Of the 37 indictees, about 20 remain free, because of allegedly bureaucratic red tape in securing their extradition.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, perhaps, the government should reexamine such requests and expedite the extradition of the indictees.  Otherwise, it will be a black mark against Filipinos, especially Filipino medical personnel.

Consider that the PhilHealth has come up recently with a reported indictment against several physicians in Negros Occidental and a local hospital for their alleged involvement in the Sight First Scam. So far, nothing more has been heard about that anomaly which caused millions of dubious reimbursements from the insurance agency. Why the slow pace of follow-up on the anomaly?

Your guess is as good as mine.

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I am pretty sure that the provincial government under the administration of Gov. Isidro Zayco will finally manage to attain rice self-sufficiency for Negros Occidental with the provincial board’s infusion of P40-million for food productivity.

The P30-million will be used to repair and rehabilitation of communal irrigation systems with P10 for agricultural productivity.

What is important now is for Gov. Zayco to ride herd on the National Irrigation Administration to expedite completion of the repair and rehab of the Bago River Irrigation project.

That, more than any other, will boost rice production by as much as the 10 percent deficit of the province. There have been suspicions that the project has become piggy bank for some NIA officials and contractors.*

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