Philippine Daily Inquirer

Wrong policy

- By Ernesto M. Ordonez

ON FEB. 7, Alyansa Agrikultur­a and R1 (Rice Watch Action Network) had a press briefing on the rice smuggling issue.

This time, they protested the recent move of the National Food Authority to open up rice importatio­n to the private sector. They decried the continuing government insensitiv­ity to the plight of poor rice farmers.

Spokeperso­ns were Jaime Tadeo of the National Rice Farmers’ Council and Trining Domingo of the Rural Women’s Congress.

It is instructiv­e to note the pattern of the three briefings on rice smuggling.

In the first held on Dec. 19, 2013, they decried the Bureau of Customs’ announceme­nt that it would release the smuggled rice back to the smugglers because of a faulty Davao court injunction. They said BOC should use allmeans necessary to prevent this. It was later found out that theDavao court had no jurisdicti­on to issue the injunction.

In the second held Jan. 17, they strongly objected to BOC’s actual release of the smuggled rice. In addition, Tadeo lodged a case in the Supreme Court against Davao Judge Emmanuel Carpio for the faulty injunction he ordered. They charged Carpio with “gross ignorance of the law,” partly because the government did not get the opportunit­y to present its position.

Domingo filed a case on the same day charging Atty. Edmund Jesus Dy Buco with “conduct prejudicia­l to the best interest of the service.”

Dy Buco was not authorized to give the government position, and in addition, even gave thewrong one.

So far, Tadeo and Domingo have not gotten feedback on the charges they filed.

The third briefing talked about how rice farmers were incredulou­s that the NFA would open up rice importatio­n to the private sector. You would think that after massive media coverage and the numerous Congressio­nal hearings showing private sector importatio­n as the main culprit behind rice smuggling, NFAwould discontinu­e this policy. Instead, NFA did the opposite! On Feb. 22, 2013, a Covenant of the Multisecto­ral Groups of Rice Industry was signed and waswitness­ed by Agricultur­e Secretary Proceso Alcala and NFA Administra­tor Orlan Calayag.

So what happened to covenant? Rice farmers ask.

It is argued that NFA had no choice but to announce last week the importatio­n of 163,000 metric tons of rice. It is true that we are obliged to allow rice importatio­n under theWorldTr­ade Organizati­on (WTO) agreement of aMinimum Access Volume-Country Specific Order (Mavcso) for 2014.

But theWTOagre­ement does not require the private sector to do the importatio­n. As amatter of fact, NFA used to do this.

The private sector rice importatio­n policy started because of two alleged reasons: (1) NFA would save the government money if the private sector did the importatio­n, and (2) NFA would lose toomuch money if it did the importatio­n and sold it to the public.

Both arguments are faulty. If NFA bought the rice today, it would make money. And if it sold the rice quickly, the NFA resources would remain intact.

On the other hand, if the private sector does the importatio­n, rice smuggling will continue. Unscrupulo­us elements will use these permits and recycle them to smuggle even more rice. They may also continue exploiting underfinan­ced small farmer cooperativ­es, making them their fronts.

Given the BOC’s weak monitoring and enforcemen­t system, opening up a small window for private sector importatio­n may well open the floodgates for rice smuggling to flourish. But if only NFA can import rice, then all private sector rice importatio­n will automatica­lly be considered smuggled.

Identifica­tion and enforcemen­t can then be easily carried out to help the farmers. ( The author is chair of Agriwatch, former Secretary for Presidenti­al Flagship Programs and Projects, and former Undersecre­tary for Agricultur­e, Trade and Industry. For inquiries and suggestion­s, e-mail agriwatch_phil@yahoo.com or telefax 8522112).

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