t’s a sick joke, that
advice of Agriculture secretary Arthur Yap to eat brown rice for its health
benefits. Brown rice is not carried by ordinary commercial outlets. It is
available only in boutique stores catering to health buffs. Because of this,
brown rice carries a premium of as much as a hundred percent over the price of
ordinary rice.
We ourselves cannot understand why this is so. Brown rice can
be produced simply by taking out the polishing rollers which remove the layer of
bran beneath the hull during milling processes. Perhaps the reason for the high
price is simply because there is limited demand for brown rice as it is
associated with poverty. Also, brown rice does not keep because the oil in the
bran quickly turns rancid.
Whatever the reason, a shift in consumer preference away from
white rice does not answer the current shortage the country is facing.
So what was Yap up to? Our suspicious mind turns to the
storied "sisid" rice during the Japanese occupation. "Sisid" rice was said to
have been salvaged from sunken cargo ships. It was probably one of those
war-time tales, for the volume of rice eaten during those years could not have
all come from the bottom of the sea. But what is not in dispute is that "sisid"
rice was barely edible, likened by those who survived on it as only marginally
better than "kaning baboy."
Is the government preparing to spring "sisid" rice on us one
of these days? We would not be surprised. Thailand has nothing to spare for
export. Vietnam has imposed an outright export ban, although it has promised to
provide the Philippines an unspecified volume after Gloria Arroyo made an
unprecedented direct appeal to Hanoi. The price, however, is at around $700 a
ton, which translates into a landed cost of P28 a kilo or already P10 higher
than NFA rice at retail.
The very tight supply, however, applies only to world market
quality rice. Probably there are stocks of low-grade rice floating around. These
are the rejects ("brokens" and deteriorated stockpiles for national food
security) which normally are not traded for human consumption. Most likely, the
NFA is already snapping up the available stocks for its subsidized rice program.
If it isn’t, then Yap is sleeping on the job.
Mar Roxas said the Palace appears to be in a denial mode on
the rice shortage. Arroyo insists that there is no problem with the supply of
rice. She said her worry is rising prices. Roxas said Gloria seems to have
forgotten her lessons in Economics 101.
We hope Yap does not fall victim to the administration’s own propaganda. A
rice crisis can topple governments and this one is already tottering as it is.
