Hindi kumpleto ang hapag ng mga Pilipino kung walang kanin. Kaya naman sa patuloy na pagtaas ng mga presyo ng bilihin, malaking tipid sana ang abot-kayang NFA rice na mabibili sa mga palengke. Pero ang mura at tulong na bigas mula sa gobyerno, hirap din mabili. Ano nga ba ang dahilan sa tila kawalan ng suplay nito? Muling balikan ang kuwento na ‘yan sa video.
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01:44 They are trying to find a way to make a living,
01:48 but due to the hardships of life and the expensive things to buy,
01:52 they are still struggling.
01:55 When a fisherman comes and gives us fish,
01:58 we sell it and we get a budget from my mom and dad.
02:05 We budget it until we get a new catch.
02:09 But sometimes, it's not that expensive to buy here.
02:12 It's not enough for a week.
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04:38 Not only in the markets that we visited, there's no NFA Rice.
04:41 We went to three more markets in Metro Manila.
04:44 All the markets that we visited had available commercial rice,
04:49 but no NFA Rice was being sold.
04:52 Ma'am, do you no longer have NFA Rice?
04:55 No, we don't.
04:56 When did it start?
04:58 It was around November or December.
05:00 What if someone is looking for NFA Rice?
05:03 We can't do anything.
05:05 They said that they can't get NFA Rice anymore.
05:07 What do you say to those who want to buy NFA Rice?
05:11 We'll just sell it here in our commercial rice.
05:14 But we'll just lower it to 40.
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05:20 Every time someone comes here, I ask if they have stock.
05:24 But there's none.
05:25 The last time we got NFA Rice was on January 9, 2018.
05:33 We ran out of it.
05:35 [Music]
05:39 I went to the biggest warehouse of NFA Rice here in the National Capital Region or NCR.
05:46 This NFA NCR warehouse is the one that receives the largest supply of NFA Rice.
05:51 In fact, 35% of the supply goes here.
05:56 Before, in this warehouse, more than 30,000 bags of NFA Rice were packed.
06:02 Now, there are only 300 bags.
06:05 The warehouse is now locked.
06:07 We were not allowed to enter because of under fumigation.
06:10 But inside, there are 300 bags of NFA Rice that were packed for the calamity.
06:17 In the past, this warehouse was almost full of NFA Rice.
06:24 In this video that was taken on the first week of April,
06:27 you can see that this warehouse is almost empty.
06:30 The loss of supply of NFA Rice in the country is the first time in the history of the NFA in more than 40 years.
06:39 According to the warehouse manager that we talked to,
06:42 on the first week of April, they were the last to distribute NFA Rice to retailers in Metro Manila.
06:48 Now, ma'am, there is no more NFA Rice in public markets, right?
06:53 Yes, there is no more.
06:54 There is no more.
06:55 For example, our countrymen who were hoping to have 28 pesos.
07:00 27 and 32.
07:02 Yes, 27 pesos and 32.
07:04 So our countrymen who were hoping to have 27 pesos in the market,
07:09 they can buy it at the lowest price.
07:11 They can't buy it anymore, right?
07:14 They can't buy it anymore.
07:16 But our organization, the retailers,
07:20 will explain to their consumers that the NFA Rice is already there.
07:29 So for the third week, the moment the instruction comes down from the vessel,
07:34 we will immediately distribute it.
07:36 But when the NFA clarifies,
07:39 the only thing missing is NFA Rice.
07:41 Commercial Rice in the market is still enough.
07:44 I am increasing it.
07:46 There is a lot of supply.
07:48 There is a lot of supply of commercial.
07:51 The difficult thing is, if there is no NFA Rice, there is no commercial rice.
07:57 Our president is calling on the traders, the farmers,
08:02 to commit to lower the NCR of low-priced rice.
08:08 Like the price of 38 and 39 that they tagged as the help of the country.
08:14 So as early as last week, the rice here has already decreased.
08:19 The National Food Authority or NFA mandated to ensure that there is enough supply of low-cost rice
08:26 in the whole country.
08:28 The NFA Rice should have a 15-day buffer stock in warehouses
08:32 that should reach 400,000 metric tons of rice.
08:36 But it is clear that this will not happen in the present.
08:40 So its ability to stabilize the price depends on its available stock.
08:45 Because if the rice rises too much and the private sector does not want to release stocks,
08:51 the NFA will release the stocks.
08:53 So the price will go down. That is the stabilization function.
08:56 If the rice is cheap and there is a chance, it will be stockpiled more than usual
09:02 so that it is ready in times of high prices.
09:06 The problem now is that there is no stock.
09:08 So there is no way to counter the price rise.
09:12 What happened, sir? Why did the NFA have a shortage?
09:17 What happened is that the opinion of the NFA Council and the NFA Management is different from the opinion of Administrator Aquino.
09:28 The opinion is different because during that time, we are saying that the NFA stocks are dwindling.
09:33 I will clarify it to you, Aquino. We do not have a shortage of rice nationwide because we have a lot of rice in the commercial.
09:39 What we lack is a buffer stock in the NFA.
09:42 On November 2017, the NFA Administrator asked for the permission of the NFA Council to import rice.
09:50 But it was not approved.
09:52 The NFA Council needs approval before the NFA can import rice.
09:57 We told the NFA Council that our stocks are dwindling.
10:00 At that time, the price of our local rice, our procurement rice,
10:09 is already P19 to P22.
10:17 So we cannot buy a buffer stock from the local procurement because the price of our rice is high.
10:25 The Council decides collectively when to buy rice, at what volume, and at what mode of procurement to be used in buying.
10:38 Because for all you know, if we keep on buying without taking consideration of the times where our farmers in the Philippines are harvesting,
10:48 it is going to create a negative impact.
10:52 At 8 in the morning, we reached Maria who is arranging her stall.
11:06 "Tetlog, sis!"
11:08 The carton is full of eggs.
11:11 "Tetlog, sis!"
11:13 Maria is going around the whole river in Navotas to sell.
11:18 With her daughter, Onyok, Maria is following every corner and every house in their area.
11:28 [Music]
11:41 Maria is taking care of her only child, Shum.
11:44 That's why she needs to make a double payment to keep the family alive.
11:48 I woke up at 5 o'clock.
11:50 I was already cleaning inside.
11:53 When my two children woke up, it was 6 o'clock.
11:57 I was already having breakfast.
11:59 It was 8 o'clock in the morning.
12:00 I was already selling.
12:02 I went home at 11 or 12 so that we can have lunch.
12:06 They were still waiting for me before we could sell.
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12:16 After 4 hours of selling, Maria earned 80 pesos.
12:22 "Where are you from?"
12:23 "I'm from Agora."
12:24 It's enough to buy 1 kilo of rice and vegetables for their lunch.
12:33 Maria bought 1 kilo of the cheapest rice.
12:38 It's worth 40 pesos.
12:41 She used to stock rice when there was NFA rice in the market.
12:50 "It's really because rice is important to us."
12:53 "Before, there was NFA rice but now it's not there anymore."
12:57 "I don't have money to buy rice. I just buy 1 kilo of rice."
13:01 When it comes to fish, Maria only has 40 pesos left to buy vegetables.
13:18 "I have 60 pesos left."
13:20 "Do you have any left?"
13:21 "No."
13:22 [Music]
13:33 When it comes to cooking lunch,
13:35 "How do you make rice?"
13:37 "This is what we do."
13:39 "When the kids are eating, I'm with them."
13:44 [Music]
13:49 Even though it's past lunchtime, Maria has a problem with her lunch.
13:53 That's why she's also selling eggs for lunch to buy food.
14:04 "We need to sell to support our family."
14:09 "Especially now that school is coming up."
14:11 "The kids don't have anything to eat."
14:14 "They're getting hungry every day."
14:16 It's a big deal for the women like Natividad and Maria
14:24 to have enough and cheap rice for their families.
14:28 Their small income allows them to buy more.
14:32 According to NFA data,
14:35 in April 2017, NFA rice supply reached 300,000 metric tons.
14:43 But the supply continued to decline in the following months.
14:46 NFA will be available in May.
14:49 NFA rice will be available in markets across the country.
14:53 "Meanwhile, we are trying to deliver our imported rice as soon as possible."
15:02 "The President is telling us not to overdo it."
15:06 But aside from the problems with the supply of NFA rice,
15:12 there are other issues facing the NFA.
15:15 In this document submitted to the Office of the President,
15:18 NFA Council Chairman Leoncio Ibasco
15:22 accused NFA Administrator Jason Aquino of being a part of the agency's irregularities.
15:27 He also accused NFA Administrator of selling more than 10 million kilos of NFA rice
15:33 to rice traders in Bulacan,
15:35 which should have been allocated to Region 8 or Eastern Visayas.
15:39 The sale of NFA rice was questioned,
15:43 especially the decline in the supply of NFA rice in Eastern Visayas,
15:46 which is considered a calamity-prone area.
15:48 "These are our aging stocks because we have standards."
15:54 "There are protocols that are being followed."
15:56 "We have a quality audit, laboratory testing."
15:59 "From the province to the region and to the central office."
16:03 "If you exceed your standards and there is confirmation from the council,"
16:08 "and there is confirmation from the council, you can dispatch it."
16:12 The largest trader who sold rice mills in Bulacan
16:21 bought more than 28,000 sacks of rice.
16:25 "The rice mills are old."
16:28 "Because we want to help the government to prevent the rice from rotting in Region 8,"
16:34 "we bought them and we were allowed to buy them in Region 8."
16:40 "There are all those documents."
16:42 "I got this from the Memorandum for the President from the Cabinet Secretary."
16:49 "One of the things there, Sir, of the 39 cooperatives, 22 are not authorized to engage in rice importation,"
16:57 "as indicated in their Certificate of Cooperation."
17:01 "That should be issued, Sir, if that is from the Cabinet Secretary."
17:04 "How can we stop that? We were stopped because that's part of the decision-making."
17:09 In a study by the International Rice Research Institute,
17:14 due to the growing population of the Philippines and the seasonal harvest,
17:20 local production of rice is not enough.
17:23 That's why rice must be imported from other countries.
17:27 One of the suggestions of an economist is to remove the authority of the NFA to issue an import quota
17:36 or allow importation for all private traders.
17:40 "So that will very quickly, without any subsidies, with zero government funds at stake,"
17:47 "bring down the price of rice in the local market if you open up trade in importation of rice."
17:54 "However, policymakers don't want to do that because this will imply that the price of rice will fall."
18:01 But for a non-government organization,
18:05 it is also important to re-evaluate the agriculture sector to increase the production of rice by our local farmers.
18:13 "If the government supports farmers, first, they need to implement a real reform on the land."
18:20 "Free land for farmers, post-harvest facilities, irrigation, loans."
18:26 "Farmers must ensure that the product of the farmers can be bought at a high price so that the farmers will not lose money."
18:32 "Farmers must have price control on their needs."
18:36 Rice is considered a staple food of Filipinos
18:42 and the government is mandated to ensure that there is cheap rice in the food choices.
18:47 In a time when the government is not doing its responsibility in providing the supply of NFA rice,
18:55 it should be decided who has a shortage.
19:00 Ensure that there is action to quickly solve the problem.
19:05 Because the affected are the ones who are more likely to suffer.
19:11 Until next Thursday, I am Dion Veneration.
19:18 I am Mackie Pulido and this is what's recorded in our Reporter's Notebook.
19:23 Reporter's Notebook.
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