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A SENATOR said the Marcos administration should focus on ensuring there will be available social assistance to poor Filipinos, especially those in the agriculture sector, during the expected drought this year rather than stocking up rice in government warehouses that people might not afford to buy due to lack of resources.   

“The economic managers should more rigorously justify why raising the stock of rice in National Food Authority (NFA) warehouses makes more sense than other programs that could protect families that might experience loss of livelihoods and hunger,” Senator Ana Theresia “Risa” N. Hontiveros-Baraquel said in a statement on Wednesday.  

“Assistance to poor citizens should be ensured first,” she said, citing a 2016 incident in Kidapawan City in southern Philippines where at least five people were shot dead when a protest action for aid broke into mayhem amid an El Niño occurrence.     

“The NFA’s warehouses had tons of supply (during the 2016 El Niño), but the problem was the poor could not afford it,” Ms. Hontiveros said in Filipino.  

The senator also said the government should purchase locally-produced rice if it wants to increase its buffer stock, and at the same time questioned the reported issuance of permits for rice importation.    

“There are also reports that sanitary and phytosanitary clearances have already been issued for more than 3 million metric tons of rice to be imported by the private sector and nearly one-third of this has already arrived. This should be enough to fill in the expected lack in local production,” she said.  

The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food, Inc. previously said that the government should allocate at least P50 billion to buy rice for buffer stocks.  

AGRI Party-list Rep. Wilbert T. Lee said in a Viber chat that subsidy to farmers should be increased and “provide more post-harvest facilities such as warehouses, rice mills, dryers, cold storages and threshers, among others, to increase production.”  

House Ways and Means Panel Chairman and Albay Rep. Jose Ma. Clemente S. Salceda said irrigation is critical in protecting rice crops from drought.   

“The National Irrigation Authority’s actions to maintain irrigation flow by clearing canals and desilting dams for increased capacity to store rain will be crucial,” he said in a Viber chat.   

The National Economic and Development Authority said last week that the government must stock up on rice supply ahead of the dry weather. 

State weather bureau PAGASA said El Niño, an unusual warming of surface water that can cause drought, will likely occur from June to August of this year. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz

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