MANILA -- President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said it is better to have a warehouse filled with excess rice than a shortage where people starve and farmers are at the losing end.
Duterte made this remark after he asked Agriculture Secretary William Dar and the Congress to “appropriate money” to buy rice from local farmers on Nov. 19.
“Sabi ko para walang gulo, sabi ko kay Dar, bilhin mo lahat. Kung mataas ang presyo kesa imported rice, bilhin mo. Ngayon, kunin mo lahat, lagay mo sa bodega natin. Ang mangyari mag-sobra sobra ating bigas (I said so to avoid chaos, I told Dar to buy all the rice. Even if it costs more than imported rice, buy them. Now, get them, place them in the warehouse. What’s going to happen is we’ll have an excess of rice),” Duterte said during the launch of the Elderly Program Center in Taguig City.
“So what’s the problem. Kainin man niyo ‘yan (You’re going to eat them all eventually). Tutal 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, kumakain tayo lahat (we all eat rice),” he added.
He said he is willing to let the government, particularly the National Food Authority (NFA), spend billions of pesos to buy more palay (unhusked rice) from farmers to improve their plight.
“Ngayon kung mas mahal ang kanilang presyo, binili ni Dar. Eh di nalugi ang gobyerno kasi bumili ng mahal. So lugi tayo. Magkano? Siguro mga PHP2 billion. Eh di lugi (Now if it costs more, then Dar will buy them. If the government incurs losses from buying them so be it. How much will we be losing? 2 billion.So be it),” Duterte said.
“Ang mga producers napaligaya natin at ang binayaran na lang natin (At least we will be making the producers happy and we will be paying them),” he added.
On Thursday, Dar said Duterte has directed the NFA to accelerate the turnover of its inventory by buying more palay and selling more regular milled rice at an average of 20,000 50-kilogram bags of rice per day.
He said the President also ordered to extend the unconditional cash transfer for small farmers affected by low palay prices from one to two years.
A total of PHP3 billion will be allocated for cash transfer extension that will benefit 600,000 farmers tilling one-half to two hectares of rice land every year. (PNA)
