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What exactly does the Department of Agriculture intend to do by considering invoking a food security emergency under the amended Rice Tariffication Law?
Such a move, according to Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., would authorize the release of buffer stocks from the National Food Authority to curb rice price volatility and stabilize market prices
Other measures are also being considered as part of efforts to ensure affordability and food security.
Among these are the option of allowing government corporations like the Food Terminal Inc. to import significant quantities of rice to compete directly with private importers. The DA legal division will also study whether provisions of the Consumer Price Act could be activated to deal with suspected profiteering.
The DA now concedes that the reduction of rice tariffs by President Marcos Jr. from 35 percent to 15 percent in July last year has failed to bring down the prices of some rice brands.
In late December, the DA claimed market rice retailers started lowering prices following the successful implementation of the Kadiwa ng Pangulo “Rice-for-All” program across Metro Manila. Rice being sold by the Kadiwa and its retailers is cheaper by ₱3 to ₱5 compared with those being sold by market retailers, resulting in increased sales by rolling stores.
Under Republic Act 12078, which amended the Rice Tariffication Law, the agriculture chief can declare a food security emergency upon the recommendation of the National Price Coordination Council if there is a supply shortage or extraordinary price fluctuations.
If implemented, the NFA will be authorized to release its buffer stocks at appropriate prices to alleviate the crisis.
The agency currently holds 5.5 million 50-kilogram bags in reserve. The rice emergency declaration would allow the NFA to release nearly six million bags of rice to the public at flexible prices.
“If declaring a rice emergency allows us to sell NFA’s nearly six million bags of rice at flexible prices to the public, then that’s definitely a good move,” Laurel said, as it would target profiteers.
“If we really want to tackle those exploiting certain rice brands, this is the best way to hit them where it hurts—their pockets,” he added.
Even better than declaring a rice emergency, from where we sit, is for the government to bring charges against the known rice hoarders and profiteers and send them to jail for economic sabotage.
Jail congestion
The politically correct term these days for those imprisoned or detained for various crimes, of course, is “persons deprived of liberty” or PDLs.
Deprivation of liberty in the concrete Philippine context means being packed like sardines in overcrowded prisons, with literally no space to move about at all times.
That’s because three in five jails in the country are bursting at the seams with PDLs as congestion rates have reached as high as 2,827 percent in 2023, way beyond acceptable standards.
Based on the latest annual report of the Commission on Audit, 324 out of the total 482 jail facilities nationwide are overcrowded, or a congestion rate of 67.22 percent, which is far beyond the acceptable standards set by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and the United Nations for the treatment of prisoners.
What this shows is the “unhealthy living conditions of the PDLs,” the COA noted, with congestion one of the biggest challenges in carrying out the government’s mandate of humane safekeeping and development of PDLs under its care.”
With a total jail population of 117,425 in 2023, the government needs to create a cell area of at least 551,897 square meters to provide a habitable space of 4.7 sqm per inmate that meets standards.
But the BJMP, which runs and supervises city, municipal and district jails in the country, had a combined cell area of only 216,788 sqm in that year. This means that the bureau would need more jail space of at least 335,109 sqm to prevent overcrowding.
State auditors have proposed several recommendations to address jail congestion. One is for the BJMP management to request donations of lots to add more jail sites; urge Congress to increase the agency’s budget for the acquisition of lots for the construction of additional jail facilities; and facilitate the early release of qualified detainees in line with the good conduct time allowance law.
We think the COA recommendations deserve serious consideration by the national government.
After all, persons deprived of liberty do not deserve to be deprived as well of their humanity, or the chance, as it were, to turn over a new leaf.
(Email: ernhil@yahoo.com)
