By Ephraim Aguilar
Inquirer Southern Luzon
and Jhunnex Napallacan
Inquirer Visayas and Christine O. Avendaño
NOWADAYS, A FINGERNAIL MARKED with ink is one sign that someone is poor, who buys government-subsidized rice.
“Indelible” ink is being used in the Bicol region not to guard against flying voters, but to mark consumers who are each entitled to buy one kilogram of cheap rice per day.
The “indelible” ink referred to by the National Food Authority (NFA) is the ink from stamp pads that its accredited retailers use to identify repeat buyers.
In Cebu province, some retailers are using pens to mark the fingernails of those who bought NFA rice from them.
These measures are being adopted to prevent consumers from acquiring subsidized rice more than their daily quota—up to three bags of one-kg rice pack at the NFA and one bag at an NFA-accredited retailer.
Prices of rice have soared because of a tight global supply that is aggravated by hoarding.
Saying there was no cause for panic amid the rising prices of rice, President Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday assured the nation that her administration was pursuing an action plan to ensure that the “rice situation remains stable.”
The plan includes a crackdown on those diverting rice supplies and “pervert(ing)” the price of the staple.
Ms Arroyo said she would lead the charge against unscrupulous rice traders.
“Anyone caught stealing rice from the people will be thrown in jail,” she said at the start of her weekly meeting with the Cabinet.
In a speech aired live on government television and radio, Ms Arroyo said the government was taking “decisive action” to prevent the global rise in the price of basic commodities like fuel and rice from becoming a crisis in the country.
She underscored the importance for the public to “understand what exactly the situation is and what we are doing about it.”
Don’t panic
“It would be unfortunate if panic overtook logic, for we will endure and survive this moment and come through it stronger,” Ms Arroyo said.
Jose Guevarra, assistant NFA regional director in Bicol, yesterday said that retailers had initiated the marking scheme to regulate the distribution of NFA rice to consumers waiting in long queues.
Despite the limit, people still find ways to go around it.
Guevarra said some consumers would have other family members line up for the NFA rice, which is being retailed at P18.25 per kilo.
“There are families with six members lining up to buy rice. Some people end up cornering the stocks. We need to distribute the commodity evenly,” he said.
He said rationing could be observed primarily in Legazpi City and other urban centers in the region.
Stable supply
Guevarra said there was no rice shortage yet in Bicol but defended the rationing of government rice, saying that the price of commercial rice is very high.
“People would, of course, choose the cheaper commodity. The NFA rice is still P18.25 per kilo while the commercial one would range from P28 to P34,” he said.
As of Monday, the NFA in Bicol still had 380,000 bags of rice, equivalent to a 44-day supply.
Exactly 134,000 bags of imported rice from Vietnam, good for 15 days, are to be delivered tomorrow at the Tabaco City port by two ships.
The NFA in Bicol tries to maintain a 56-day buffer stock for disaster contingency as the region lies on the typhoon belt, according to Guevarra.
Repeat customers
In Cebu province, NFA retailers have started selling a limited volume of rice to each buyer even as they marked fingernails to prevent repeat customers on the same day.
Some retailers, especially in Carcar City, have started using marker pens to mark the fingernails of those who bought rice from them, said Edgar Diez, NFA enforcement officer in Central Visayas.
The NFA has also tapped two parishes and increased rice allocations for “Tindahan Natin” outlets to serve the growing number of people lining up to buy the subsidized rice.
Church outlets
Diez said two parishes, one in Cebu City and the other in Bogo City, began distributing rice to consumers through the “Tindahan sa Parokya.”
The NFA regional office will tap more parishes to ensure that the low-income consumers can buy cheaper rice, Diez said.
He also announced that the regional office had decided to give additional allocation to Tindahan Natin (TN) outlets in the region because of the current situation.
The NFA regional office increased the rice allocations for all TN outlets from 15 bags to 20 bags per week because of the large number of people lining up to buy the cheaper rice, he said.
Diez said customers were allowed to buy from the authorized retailers one kilo to three kilos of NFA rice depending on the number of family members.
An official of the Catholic Church in Cebu said the Archdiocese of Cebu was ready to join in the distribution of the cheap rice to poor consumers.
But Msgr. Achilles Dakay, media liaison officer of the Cebu Archdiocese, expressed apprehension over reports that the government might consider distributing condoms to help solve the reported rice shortage.
Dakay made the comment after he heard Rep. Edcel Lagman pointing at the rising population as one of the causes of the rice shortage.
Three phases
In her speech, the President said the action plan consisted of three phases—securing rice supply, ensuring proper distribution, and enforcing laws to protect people against price gouging and corruption.
Saying that the country’s rice supply was “secure for the foreseeable future,” Ms Arroyo noted the recent arrival of 500,000 metric tons of rice from Vietnam and Thailand.
A total of 700,000 tons of rice from Vietnam, Thailand and Pakistan is expected to arrive this month, in May and in June, she said.
Public bidding
There will be a public bidding on April 17 for 500,000 tons of rice arriving in May, June and July, and another bidding for the balance of 500,000 tons in May for rice deliveries in June, July and August.
Mosques
To ensure proper distribution of rice, Ms Arroyo said that the government was seeking the help of the faith-based-community churches and mosques to help deliver the rice, especially to the poor.
Malacañang will submit to Congress a proposed Consumers Bill of Rights “that will help protect and defend consumers while strengthening penalties against those individuals or entities that abuse the right of our people to this basic commodity.”
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