Rice crisis in Zamboanga City
City now under state of calamity; NFA asked to probe situation
Zamboanga City has been placed under state of calamity due to rice shortage triggered by unabated increase in prices of commercial rice sold in public markets.
Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco said the measure will help the city government address the rice shortage and will help mitigate the unabated price increase of basic staple.
The price of commercial rice sold at the main public market here is
now as high as 168 per kilo and a low of 155 per kilo, a price that many poor people here are now passing difficulty in buying for a kilo of rice for their meal.
The city government is also contemplating on imposing a 145 per kilo price ceiling on commercial rice for three months. It also plans to ask National Food Authority (NFA) to augment the supply of rice in Zamboanga City.
NFA Assistant Director Ruben Manatad revealed that the agency only has 40,000 bags of government rice inside its warehouse in the city – a supply that can only last for one week based on a daily consumption of 6,400 sacks a day.
With the rice crisis, Zamboanga City 1st District Rep Celso Lobregat is pushing to institutionalize the food security program of the city. He noted that the local production of rice cannot meet the demand of the growing population in Zamboanga City and has to source rice supply outside the city. State of calamity won’t solve crisis Lobregat said the declaration of state of calamity in the city due to rice shortage will never resolve the situation, not unless all the issues pertaining to the rice shortage and overpricing must is dealt with accordingly.
“The declaration of the state of calamity in the city is an admission that there is really something wrong. This is an economic issue which affects the poorest of the poor, that’s why as an official of the government, I have to initiate moves to address the present economic crisis,” Lobregat said.
Lobregat has made representations with NFA Director Genaro “Jun” Nuñez for the release of additional NFA rice to retailers to bring down rice prices in the market.
He visited the NFA-accredited outlets in the Zamboanga City Public Market and Sta. Cruz Public Market to make sure that there is enough supply of NFA rice.
NFA asked to act on crisis For his part, Davao City 1st District Rep. Karlo Nograles called on the NFA to check price manipulation as he called the agency's attention to reports of abnormally high rice prices in Zamboanga City.
As per the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the average retail price of a kilo of regular milled rice in the country is 142.26, while the average retail price of well-milled rice is 145.71.
"Even accounting for less than optimal weather conditions, the discrepancy of the prices in the Zamboanga peninsula is huge, masyado pa rin pong mahal ang presyong ito (these prices are still too high). Prices like these put a huge strain on the limited budgets of families who just want to have three square meals a day. The NFA should check if something illegal is going on," Nograles said.
Nograles wasted no time in responding to the problem as he helped facilitate the release and distribution of NFA rice in Zamboanga City to halt the price surge.
"Some 120,000 bags or 6,000 metric tons of rice were allocated by the NFA for Region IX. This will help stabilize the soaring prices of local commercial rice since the consumers would have more choices of rice to choose from," said Nograles.
NFA rice is 127 a kilo and is the most affordable rice variety in the market.
Unscrupulous traders to blame? According to the NFA, the current scarcity of rice in the country is due to the spate of bad weather which has affected both rice production and the shipment of the staple food.
"What's worse, the information relayed to me is that unscrupulous traders are hoarding more rice, thereby driving up prices further. They're manipulating the market in their favor but this is making probinsyanos suffer. Ang dami na pong nagsusumbong sa akin (A lot have told me about this).
“The NFA must find out if this practice occurs in Zamboanga City alone or in the entire Zamboanga peninsula,” stressed the three-term congressman.
Reports reaching Nograles indicated these prices of rice in Region IX: Dipolog, Zamboanga Del Norte, 155 to 60 per kilo; Pagadian, Zamboanga del Sur, 155 to 60 per kilo; Ipil, Zamboanga del Sur, 155 to 60 per kilo; and Zamboanga City, 160 to 68 per kilo.
Just a bit further south in Basilan, rice prices are pegged at 160 to 70 per kilo.
Nograles said he has asked the NFA and Department of Agriculture (DA) to update him regarding their inspections in various rice warehouses in the region.
Importation to trigger crisis
Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol fears that a rice crisis may occur if the country's economic managers would keep on pushing for more importation instead of allotting funds to boost local production.
Piñol, in a statement, said the rice crisis in the city of Zamboanga and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi – where the price of rice recently shot up to 170 per kilo – may also happen to the entire country if the economic managers succeed on their proposal to just rely on imported rice and reduce government spending on the country’s rice farming sector.
In just a matter of days, prices of rice went up from about 138 per kilo as high as 170 per kilo.
"When smuggling was stopped, prices of rice in the ZAMBASULTA markets started shooting up and consumers asked for the government subsidized rice from the National Food Authority (NFA) which they ignored in the past," Piñol said. (With a report from Madelaine B. Miraflor)