Senator Risa Hontiveros says the country’s economic managers should justify the increase in rice inventory of the National Food Authority (NFA).
Hontiveros expressed belief however that stocking up in the country’s staple was more reasonable than other economy-related programs of the government, particularly those than address livelihood and hunger.
The senator said the government should ensure adequate supply of food for the people, notably the poor.
She recounted that during the 2016 El Niño, there were substantial stocks of rice in the NFA warehouses, but the problem was the poor had no money to buy the cereal.
“The violence in Kidapawan with the refusal to open the warehouses for the poor should not happen again,” Hontiveros stressed.
She said there were also reports that sanitary and phytosanitary clearances have already been issued for more than three million metric tons of rice to be imported by the private sector and nearly one-third of this allocation has already arrived.
“Likewise, we know that the price of fertilizers has already gone down dramatically and the budgets for inputs and irrigation for the rice sector have been more than doubled for this year,” she said.
“This should be enough so we can prepare for a bountiful harvest since El Nino will occur towards the end of the year,” she said.
“So if we are to add rice stocks to warehouses of the National Food Authority, she said the setup would benefit the local farmers.” Macon Ramos-Araneta