Rice crisis a chance for President Arroyo to recover

Rice crisis a chance for GMA to recover


The ongoing rice crisis is a golden opportunity for President Arroyo to recover from the depths of unpopularity and distrust. The latest SWS survey shows a 54 percent dissatisfaction rating with her performance, a drop of ten percentage points from December 2007. The 54 percent is below her scores of the past two years.
The rice problem is a question of two million tons – the shortage or gap between demand and supply. Some ten million tons of rice are needed this year. The supply is less than that, at a little above nine million, plus some inventory to make up for distribution inefficiencies, speculation and corruption. That is the two million.
The government has secured supplies from Vietnam and Thailand, up to 2.7 million tons. Still, there are long queues at government rice retail outlets. The reason is price distortion. The government sells rice at P18.25; the private sector at not less than P30 a kilo. If you are poor, the P11.75 difference is worth spending time at rice lines. Each family of five to six people needs about 1.5 kilos of rice a day. Multiply 1.5 by P11.75 and you have a paper gain of P17.62, enough to buy yourself almost another kilo of rice. That explains the long lines and the frayed nerves.
President Arroyo wants to make sure every poor family – at least two million families – can buy rice at P18.25 a kilo. Food is 55 percent of a poor man’s household spending. Of that 15 percent is rice.
Please note that a poor person makes only less than a dollar or P40 a day or P200 for a family of five per day. Each day, a family spends P28 (the 15 percent) of that for rice, leaving P172, for other expenses like other kinds of food (remember it spends 55 percent on expenses for food or P110 of every P200). The remaining 45 percent or P90 goes to utilities (like electricity, LPG, water, cellphone and transportation), personal upkeep, clothes and housing, if any. Given that financial straightjacket, it is not difficult to imagine why the masses don’t like their government.
If GMA can deliver rice to the poor, by whatever means, she can do wonders. She is going after rice hoarders and smugglers and anyone who messes up the supply chain of rice. She applies the shock and awe approach to the problem. Show the culprits you can give them hell and hell se will deliver. She calls top-level meetings of her officials almost daily on the rice situation. She is on the warpath.
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The SM group has emerged as the biggest donor to the Myra V. Lopez Scholarship Fund for journalism and entrepreneurship created in honor of my eldest child who died at age 37 on March 29 from brain stem compression due to cerebellar hemorrhage. Myra was the chairman of the board of my BizNewsAsia weekly business magazine. She finished journalism and MBA both at Ateneo.
The passing away of my daughter is the saddest moment of my life. It has scarred my heart and soul forever. I thought of remembering Myra always with a scholarship program named after her. Thankfully, many have responded to my call. The SM Group has donated a total of P205,000 – P100,000 from SM patriarch Henry Sy Sr., P50,000 from SM Investments Corp., P30,000 from Tessie Sy, P20,000 from Shoemart, and P5,000 from Dennis Navarro, the pr consultant of the group.
President Arroyo is next biggest with P100,000; President Estrada P50,000; UP Regent Nelia Gonzalez P46,425; Metrobank Chair Tony Abacan P25,000, Joey Leviste P25,000, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes P20,000, BSP Governor Amando Tetangco P20,000; Ayala, Globe Telecom, Plantersbank, Philamlife, Raul Concepcion and Obet Pagdanganan, P10,000 each; Manila Rotarian Justo Ortiz, PEZA Director General Lilia de Lima, ABS-CBN’s Bong Osorio, Full Circle Communications, and PCGG Chair Camilo Sabio, P5,000 each. We will list the others later.
Many more are making donations. Words are not enough to acknowledge the generosity of these people and companies. I pray that their tribe increase.

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