Of ash and asses

The midterm election is just around the corner and Malacañang is coming up with all the tricks to lure the electorate to support its candidates.

To perform its recent hypnotic act is the novice PCO Undersecretary Claire Castro who lectures us on how to bring down the cost of rice to P33 from P35 per kilogram (kg). She tells us that the local government units have been buying rice from the National Food Authority (NFA) at P33/kg but are selling this at P35/kg. She suggests the LGUs should sell their rice at P33/kg.

Barely a week had elapsed and the Department of Agriculture grabbed the spotlight from Undersecretary Castro.

A spokesperson of the agency, Arnel de Mesa, proudly claimed, “This is the outcome of the combined programs of the DA. There’s our Rice for All, wherein we dropped the price from P45 to only P35,” he said.

Broken rice, he said, is expected to drop to P45/kg by the end of March, while the current price is set at P49/kg, much lower than the original P58/kg.

Before the suggested retail price was implemented, he proudly declared the retail price for 5-percent broken rice was P62/kg to P64/kg.

According to De Mesa, the effect of the price adjustment may be felt within the month.

Meaning the NFA and some LGUs that had earlier purchased rice from the NFA will unload their hoarded stocks shortly before the election with the hope that this will win votes for the administration’s senatorial bets in particular.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, of course, was not remiss in giving credit to his boss, President Bongbong Marcos.

“This is welcome news. It clearly shows that the efforts of President Bongbong Marcos, particularly the sharp tariff reduction last year, were steps in the right direction,” Laurel boasted.

This propaganda and ego massage not only belittles the comprehensive abilities of the people, this also reveals how mismanaged the DA and the agencies under it are. It is not the mandate of the LGUs to procure and sell rice. Those functions belong to NFA.

Both Marcos and Laurel, including the economic advisers, are of the impression that the reduction of tariff on rice imports from 35 percent to 15 percent was a brilliant idea.

It is in fact a veritable noose around the neck of the farmers who are slowly but surely dying from having to compete with the government with its unimpeded importation of rice.

Laurel has failed miserably in his duty to make the country self-sufficient in rice.

Both BBM and Laurel focused on incentivizing rice importation with the radical reduction of tariffs instead of incentivizing farmers to maximize production by providing enough money to NFA to buy palay from the farmers for at least P19/kilo.

Sadly, Laurel, who knows the fishing industry, is bereft of knowledge on how to improve rice productivity. The NFA is inutile and the National Irrigation Administration has become irrelevant in that vital irrigation systems have not even been rehabilitated.

The entire bureaucracy under the present dispensation is focused on how to stay in power and the process depletes the national treasury — gold bullions disappear from the vaults of the Central Bank, billions of pesos are juggled from PhilHealth and PDIC to craft a “blankety” General Appropriations Bill that allocates billions of the people’s tax money to members of Congress, and the public’s attention is diverted by impeaching Vice President Sara Duterte over the P125-million confidential fund disbursement and hyperbole.

The nation just observed Ash Wednesday and we continue to pray that the asses in the government bureaucracy get their comeuppance at the Supreme Court before Election Day.