THE GMA administration will most likely wither the political storm or noise that various government scandals and Senate investigations have so far generated. Street protests could fizzle out and the people’s militancy, or whatever is left of it, probably die down in no time as turns of events may out-phase the public outcry for truth, transparency and good governance.

        One of such events is the report that a prominent and influential leader of the people’s quest for truth movement, Ex-President Cory Aquino, is suffering from a colon cancer. Another is the Supreme Court’s recent 9-6 ruling granting the petition of Romulo Neri, the chairman of the Commission on Higher Education, to invoke “executive privilege” on his conversation with President Gloria Arroyo about the aborted $329 million NBN project with China’s ZTE Corp, thereby possibly scuttling the Senate investigating body’s efforts to extract the truth from this witness perceived to have direct knowledge on the scandalous broadband deal. And there may be other “distractions” that may crop up and impede the people’s legitimate demand for truth and political reforms.

        But will GMA and her cohorts in the government have now reasons to rejoice?

        No. There’s a looming rice crisis. And this could be far worse than all other crises that have hounded this government – the possibility of people having “not enough to eat and having not enough money to buy enough to eat”. This scenario, if not immediately and effectively addressed, could translate into “social unrest” or anarchy. For as a Latin American saying indicates, “When the price of rice rises, governments fall.”

        So, for GMA and her cabals to probably try to hold on to power or at least hope to have some “graceful exit” at the end of their terms, they should get their act together and work now – and seriously - to avert the impending rice crisis as projected by some economic-agriculture experts and being confirmed with the steady rise in the prices of this basic staple and the dubious shortage of National Food Authority (NFA) grains in the market.

        Our government should not propose only palliative measures, e.g., asking the consuming public to scrimp on food and avoid food wastes or to resort to eating camote or other root crops in lieu of rice. It should uproot the very causes of this problem.

        For instance, we should closely monitor market activities and put behind bars, if not shooting range, rice smugglers and hoarders, price manipulators and corrupt officials in government and private agencies directly or indirectly responsible for this crisis.

        Our government should immediately stop the conversion of agricultural or rice lands into posh subdivisions or urban poor relocation sites or private resorts. All-out support or incentives have to be given our farmers in the form of fertilizer subsidies, more irrigation facilities and farm-to-market roads particularly in rice growing areas. Sufficient public funds have to be allocated and released to various government agencies tasked with improving the plight of farmers and the agricultural sector, provided extreme accountability measures are undertaken to ensure that big chunks of these funds don’t end up getting into individual bank accounts. Furthermore, the billions of pork barrel funds which otherwise could be only a source of graft or kickbacks can be tapped to augment government efforts toward more rice production and sustainable cereal supply.

        There are actually lots of possible recourse we can do to attain rice sufficiency, if not restore our previous title as one of top rice growing economies in the Far East.

        We need only to work real hard – and honestly. And rid ourselves of too much greed and disturbing apathy.

        Otherwise, in times of famine, can we take to the streets or ransack stores in search for a few kilos of rice, if any, to eat?



MANUEL A. COLLAO
manuelc223@yahoo.com