Rice, Rice, Baby

Rice shortages heighten political crisis in the Philippines
By Oscar Grenfell8 April 2008

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Rice prices have soared to a 34-year high in the Philippines, exacerbating social and political tensions, and creating more problems for the crisis-ridden regime of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo amid claims that her government had known of the shortages for more than a month.

Globally, stocks of rice and other foods have plummeted, resulting in a steep rise in prices. Rising prices also have their own dynamic, leading to speculation and the hoarding of rice supplies in the hope of future windfall profits.

Some of the largest rice exporters have limited sales. The world’s leading exporter, Thailand, has also begun to control foreign rice sales. India has raised the minimum export price by more than 50 percent and China has begun to import rice.

As the world’s largest importer of rice, the Philippines has been among the hardest hit. Rising prices for rice, along with other food items and oil, led to a sharp jump in the official inflation rate from 2.6 percent in March 2007 to 6.4 percent in March this year. Radio Australia reported late last month that “rice prices in Manila have soared to as high as $1.15 a kilo from as low as 50 cents a kilo a week ago.”

Accusations of incompetence in dealing with the shortages have compounded the political crisis facing President Arroyo. Initially, Arroyo tried to deny there was any rice crisis at all, saying it was “a physical phenomenon where people line up on the streets to buy rice. The leftist peasant organisation, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), claimed last month, that two secret internal government memoranda dated February 11 and February 27 demonstrate that the Arroyo administration knew of the impending rice crisis since February.

One of the reports cited in an ABS-CBN article included a request for the National Food Authority (NFA) to import an additional 500,000 tonnes of rice. Lower house speaker Prospero Nograles declared on April 4 that “smuggling and hoarding by rice cartels should be curbed effectively” and called for tougher legal penalties for illegal price manipulation under the country’s Price Act. Arroyo has also frantically sought to find sources of rice imports, recently securing an agreement from Vietnam to supply around 1.5 million tonnes. Most imports are currently handled by the NFA, which then provides subsidised rice for the local market. Arroyo has also called for cuts to consumption. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap announced a plan late last month to encourage restaurants to serve less rice. “We are inviting them to participate in the rice conservation program,” he said. Millions of working people face food insecurity and hunger. Rodolfo de Lima, a parking lot attendant, told the Associated Press that if rice prices continued to rise “my family will go hungry.” Commenting in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Senator Loren Legarda warned: “Rice is an extremely sensitive political commodity.

See Also:

Global food prices rise and famine increases[29 March 2008]

Workers protest rising prices in UAE, Egypt[22 March 2008]

Food prices continue to rise worldwide[25 February 2008]

To Hell With Brokeback Mountain

(This is a reprint of a letter sent by Diana Parker, Outreach Specialist, University of Wisconsin, Madison to BlackBook, 10th Anniversary Year Issue May 2006).

Dear Richard Hell,

Your review of Brokeback Mountain ("Hell at the Movies," BlackBook, Winter Music Issue 2005-06) was amazingly appalling. Thank you very much for summarizing a loving relationship between two men as one that was like any other buddy relationship between two men. They are in love, and it is obvious that they are. You might might have missed it while you were busy thinking up those awful gay butt jokes for your reviews. Saying that gay male relationships are straight male relationships with the exception that gay males "just happen not to mind actively assisting in each other's ejaculations" is not humorous--it is demeaning. While I assume the unbelievably passive and impersonal voice is your attempt to look like a dry, witty fellow, it is a disaster and really devalues your praise of the movie. But I also want to thank you for stating that their impoverished lives left them at a stage where they are more likely to go to a male for emotional and physical love, a stage called prepubescence! You managed to include two major classic arguments against queer culture in your article: that queers are driven by happening--once again, I will quote this awesome sentence of yours--"to not mind actively assisting in each other's ejaculation" and their emotional and/or mental immaturity. Ugh!

the making of a global leader

JUST NAMED A “YOUNG GLOBAL LEADER OF 2008” by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Geneva, Manila-born Illac Diaz, 36, is making waves not by leaving the Philippines (though he’s done that too) but by calling the world’s attention to Filipino vision sparked by brilliance and marked by compassion.

Illac joins Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero and 243 other public figures, executives and intellectuals 40 years old or younger who “initiate, develop and drive innovative solutions to globally-oriented issues," in the words of the head of WEF’s Young Global Leaders Forum David Aikman.

Many know already of Chiz Escudero, but who is Illac (pronounced ee-lak) Diaz?

Surrounded by both art and squatters in the neighborhood, Illac’s childhood memories include accompanying his mother on her weekly feeding program for street children.

Illac asked. “My priority is to answer the call of service on my own terms in confronting poverty,” Illac told the writer Ria V. Ferro. Establishing Pier One in Intramuros the year he graduated from AIM in 2001 was the beginning of Illac’s lengthening trail of firsts. This first migrant housing center in Manila met an urgent demand for affordable, clean and safe transient housing for men coming to Manila from the provinces to look for work as seamen, and seamen awaiting the next voyage out. Pier One made Illac Diaz the youngest AIM alumnus to receive an Honors & Prestige award in 2003. CNN reported the story and three new awards came in 2004 – an Everyday Hero Special Award from Readers Digest Asia; an Entrepreneur Award from the 1st Johnny Walker Social Awards; and a runner-up award in New York’s Next Big Idea International Design Competition. This more affordable, indigenous rather than fully manufactured construction material addressed the shortage of clinics and schools in rural Philippines. Housing and all forms of shelter have been a constant theme of Illac Diaz’s public life. Bonus points on the work's ‘compassion’ and ‘creativity’ scale went through the roof. The idea had alighted on Illac while visiting his late aunt Rio Diaz-Cojuangco in Negros, where he noticed adobe bridges built in Spanish times. Internet research and visits to India and America made him realize that the idea of adobe houses was eminently applicable to the Philippines. Ria Ferro observes that “identifying gaps of service, devising ingenious business solutions based on pioneering ideas and achieving significant gains in the quality of life of a marginalized group” have been the themes of Illac Diaz’s world trajectory, with awards trailing behind.

Word of the WEF Young Global Leaders Award came as he presently works on a global architectural competition to design more disaster resistant classrooms in the Philippines. Back in Boston, this time he’s on a mid-career Masters in Public Administration as a Catherine Reynolds scholar in Social Entrepreneurship in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

is time on arroyo's side?

TIME IS EITHER AN ENEMY OR AN ALLY of the embattled government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Although the economy has enjoyed unprecedented growth during the past 30 years, hitting 7.3 percent in 2007, the biggest expansion took place during the past two years, breaking past the 4.6 percent average growth rate in 2001-2006. This article does not intend to establish the relationship between economic growth and political turbulence. A recent study by the Asian Development Bank examined the link between corruption and political instability and decline in investment growth. The paper found that governance concerns are one of the “critical constraints to private investment and growth in the Philippines.” Basically the question boils down to this: has “political noise” become less of a force in generating political instability and reached its peak? According to this argument, “people are tired of politics of division and despair.” This argument ignores the question, voiced by people outside Malacañang, which Palace insiders do not want to ask or to face: Are people not getting tired of the President? The public gets tired of congressional investigations but they get tired, too, of the reproduction of scandals at every congressional investigation. The argument that people are “tired” of scandals rests on flimsy grounds. Are more and more people not getting tired of President Arroyo rather than of the scandals?

mistake #8

beyond truth


With an inspired sense of timing, the Catholic bishops who together constitute the Ecclesiastical Province of Manila (who knew there was such a thing?) issued a special pastoral letter reflecting on the national shame of corruption in order to mark Palm Sunday—the start of the holiest days in the Christian calendar. What did the 16 bishops (including Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and Bishop Leopoldo Tumulak of the Military Ordinariate) wish to impress upon the faithful? The CBCP called it a “crisis of truth.” The 16 bishops describe the national situation in somewhat less elegant terms: “Today,” their letter begins, “we are experiencing a social and political mess.” But the 16 bishops of the Manila province see the “mess” differently. Corruption is [worse] than lies, because lies are employed only to cover it.” The 16 bishops then repair to the oldest moral code available to the faithful, the Ten Commandments. The pastoral letter picks up the narrative, to point out that the Filipino’s liberation from “Egypt” must be followed by time spent in the “desert.”

un-holy week

Here's an unequivocal sign of the times: Even on the holiest days of the Christian calendar, political thoughts continue to intrude. Only last Sunday, a group of 16 bishops from the Metropolitan Ecclesiastical Province of Manila issued another pastoral letter. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has assured the public that, while prices are indeed rising, supply remains adequate. But it is a measure of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's legitimacy crisis that Yap himself faces a credibility test. To be sure, public skepticism is also fueled by turmoil in the global markets; oil prices have reached an all-time high, the dollar is under severe strain, the prospect of corporate failures is unsettlingly high. But on top of all these, the administration's credibility problem at a time of serious allegations of corruption and betrayal of public trust is a grave concern. Questions like these interfere with the faithful Holy Week reflections.

a quarrel among thieves

SO MUCH HAS BEEN SAID for the last six months about the NBN (the National Broadband Network project) controversy. It started with Joey de Venecia, the soured loser and turned whistleblower, testified about the President’s husband Jose Miguel Arroyo’s alleged involvement in the overpriced project. What we want now from the ongoing Senate inquiry into the NBN scandal and the role of the Chinese firm ZTE played in it has evolved. From a passing interest in the details of what Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago characterized as a quarrel among thieves, to an enthusiastic kibitzer, we now want to discover what President Macapagal-Arroyo knew, and when she knew it. Let’s try this for a change. We would live backwards to some six months ago and see how much we make sense of the recent events…

Mar. 6, Tuesday -- in aid of transparency

It took some time for a waiting public to sense the full shape of the Supreme Court’s compromise proposal in Romulo Neri’s executive privilege case. Essentially, what the Court did was to: a) recognize its limits and b) recognize the public clamor for transparency and truth in the NBN controversy. It is the public’s responsibility to accept the Supreme Court’s limits too. The compromise allows the Senate to immediately summon Neri back to the witnesses’ panel. In the court of public opinion, Neri has no more room to hedge.

Feb. 16, Sunday -- forked tongue

When president macapagal-arroyo went before the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) and Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (Focap) last Friday, she said early on in her speech: “We take the ZTE issue very seriously.” Mrs. Macapagal cancelled the deal amid the uproar.”

Perhaps the President’s idea of a fight is shadow boxing?

How independent? Then just as the President began to try to salvage the situation, the Ombudsman suddenly rose from her previous lethargy on the issues of high-level corruption. Defensively. The Ombudsman then issued a flood of subpoenas coincidentally timed with the Senate’s resumption of hearings on Monday. For monitoring traffic, the police said; for a transparent investigation, the Ombudsman says. And then, the President said, “I have given clearance to the secretary of justice to investigate those implicated who are not within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman.” Invoking the right against self-incrimination?

In conclusion, the President went on to emphasize the elaborate choreography of the shadow boxing: “I trust that the Ombudsman will investigate this issue thoroughly and I trust that she will ensure a transparent process in doing so. Switik.

-- ‘bring it on’

Friday, Makati City saw, once more, the face of mobilization; Sunday, La Salle Greenhills will be the focus of prayers. As a result, the public, hemmed in by shrill voices on all sides, knowing that in the wings wait forces that know no limits, feel utterly powerless, completely devoid of options. But the options are there. The individual citizen, unsure of what collective action to pursue, can find his or her bearings by means of resolving individual action. Let the government authorize its officials to freely testify without the prior restraint of hiding behind the President’s skirt of authority. Let critics of the powers-that-be prove to us, the people, that they can forsake ambition in pursuit of the public interest; that they will undertake, not a cosmetic change, but a genuine change involving the sacrifice, if need be, of their own privileges and power. The Filipino people have the ultimate power, which is to judge. To insist on that is what renders wrongdoers powerless.

Feb. 15, Friday -- Checkmated bishops

If the administration has become a constitutional wrecking crew, then what should people of conscience do? Right after nuns and other religious bravely shielded Lozada from the talons of the state, all that the bishops did was to hail Lozada, saying he could save the government from “scandalous and immoral kickbacks.” By now the bishops should have appreciated that the ZTE issue, more than just another instance of corruption, is an episode in a vast tapestry of abuse of power, constitutional deception and subversion -- a stark evil right in the corridors of power. But still the bishops hem and haw, even deny they have the duty to lead the people. An instance of this is Bishop Francisco Claver’s revisionism of Jaime Cardinal Sin, the bishops and people power. Claver’s argument is platitudinous, if not misplaced. EDSA People Power I came to pass because of the activism of Sin and later, of the bishops, who kneaded the critical mass. They’ve become spiritual and moral illiterates.

Feb. 12, Tuesday -- cost of corruption

Graft and corruption has been a fact of national life since post-Liberation days. At every presidential election, one major issue that is always raised is graft and corruption. Bruce Van Voorhis, a member of the Asian Human Rights Commission, said that these aspects of the life of the nation are linked: “People are poor to a large extent because of widespread corruption; those who wield political power violate people’s rights to attain and maintain that power; a lack of judicial punishment in the courts ensures impunity that permits corruption and human rights violations to continue. Corruption retards economic and social development, lowers the quality of public services and infrastructure and raises the prices of goods and services. Graft and corruption flourishes because of the culture of impunity. Have you heard of any big fish being convicted of corruption and plunder, except deposed president Joseph Estrada? Graft and corruption has become so ingrained in the national life that it is considered “normal.” Even people like Lozada are ready to consider a 20-percent “commission” on government deals acceptable.

Feb. 11, Monday -- pinoy’s big brother

The interception of Lozada’s messages is shocking partly because it seems right out of the movies. But Lozada, a self-styled information technology expert, confirmed that it was indeed possible to eavesdrop, so to speak, on other people’s text messages in real time. Consider what we have learned from Lozada’s vivid if at times redundant testimony: Abalos had the conversations of Lozada and former socio-economic planning secretary Romulo Neri monitored -- apparently the work of Military Intelligence Group 17, Lozada said. Lozada’s cellphones were tapped -- at the exact time his erstwhile superior told him his armed custodians were on his side. Non-civilian authorities -- Lozada thinks it could be the Presidential Security Group -- easily out-maneuvered the Senate’s own agents, the media’s inquisitive reporters, even the relatives of Lozada who supposedly requested for protection in the first place, by spiriting Lozada out of the airport in a matter of minutes.

Feb. 10, Sunday -- ‘crying lady’

We’ve heard that President Macapagal-Arroyo and her family like to feast on cocido on Sundays. For all their Old Society pretensions, they are proving themselves irredeemably politically uncouth and old-fashioned. Sociologist Randy David said it best, yesterday: “The old values that used to mitigate the oppressiveness of feudal power—self-restraint, the value of friendship, loyalty, word of honor, etc.—are fading away. What is replacing the grip of Old World politics, however, is not the ethical professionalism of modern politics but the sheer rapaciousness of the parvenus of present-day Philippine politics.” Sergio Apostol, to name just one noxious example, earned his keep as chief presidential legal counsel by acting macho—calling Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr. a “crying lady”—and then slandering everyone of Chinese extraction. “Bagay sa iyo i-deport ka. Magulo ka dito” (You should be deported because you’re troublesome). Which is why, last Friday, as a week of administration bungling brought forth a new star witness in the controversial NBN-ZTE deal, administration senators made themselves scarce.

Feb. 9, Saturday – ‘moderate their greed’

Lozada, an engineer by training whom Neri tapped as a consultant in the project intended to link all units of government under one telecommunications network, said the NBN was originally intended to be undertaken under a build-operate-transfer scheme. Amsterdam Holdings Inc., a firm owned by Jose de Venecia III, submitted an unsolicited proposal to undertake the project. Lozada came up with what he thought to be a “win-win solution”: Let Amsterdam Holdings undertake the project, with ZTE as its supplier. Enter First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. De Venecia was cut off the deal. Lozada, whose long association with Neri allowed him to see a number of big government contracts being negotiated, said the NBN deal was but one example of how the “dysfunctional government procurement system” worked. Lozada hinted that he might not have objected if Abalos and his associates had scaled down their commission to about 20 percent. Lozada is lucky he is still alive after his abduction.

Feb. 7, Thursday -- believing Lozada

Various Palace spokespersons called the Senate witness on the ZTE scandal a liar, and his emotional press conference a tissue of convenient lies. Does anyone in Malacañang actually think there was anything convenient in the course Lozada chose? What does a man like Lozada, who is not independently wealthy, who holds no political power; stand to gain from taking on Malacañang? It is striking that Lozada took pains to give a nuanced explanation for signing that second affidavit. Lozada could have easily said he had signed the second affidavit against his will. Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza, Lozada’s erstwhile boss, maintained that Lozada had gone through the immigration and customs counters upon arrival from Hong Kong. Philippine National Police Director General Avelino Razon alleged that Lozada was brought immediately to La Salle Greenhills. But Lozada said he was in fact taken for a long ride to Laguna province, before media interest and public curiosity forced his custodians to return to Metro Manila. Deputy Presidential Spokesman Anthony Golez scored the inconsistency in Lozada’s explanation of the second affidavit. Malacañang’s full-court press gives the game away.

kosher brew

“MOSES MAY HAVE BEEN ‘HIGH’ ON MT. SINAI when he brought the Ten Commandments down.” Honestly, I don’t know what to make of this information.

In the dailies today a new study has made claim that some events in the Bible could just have been imaginings of people in an “altered state of awareness.” According to the study by Benny Shannon, an Israeli psychology professor, there were two plants in the Sinai desert that contained the same psychoactive molecules as those found in ayahausca, an Amazonian hallucinogenic brew. One of these plants is frequently mentioned in the Bible, the concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree have same psychedelic effects of ayahausca. The other plant, harmal, had long been regarded by the Jews in the region as having magical and curative powers. The thunder, lightning and blaring of a trumpet which the Book of Exodus says emanated from Mt. Sinai, an event that joined Moses and the biblical Israelites could have been had under the effect of narcotics,” Shannon said on Israeli public radio. “The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a classic phenomenon,” he said citing the example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to “see music.” “I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations,” Shannon said having taken the brew about 160 times himself. He suggested that Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the “burning bush.” Wow pare! Wow ang labo! (Wow bro! Wow that’s amazing!)

But some biblical scholars were unimpressed. Orthodox rabbi Yuval Sherlow told Israel Radio: “The Bible is trying to convey a very profound event. We have no fear not for the fate of the Biblical Moses, but for the fate of science.” I second to that emotion, rabbi.