00:00 [Music]
00:10 [Speaking in Tagalog]
00:22 [Speaking in Tagalog]
00:24 [Speaking in Tagalog]
00:34 [Speaking in Tagalog]
00:40 [Speaking in Tagalog]
00:46 [Speaking in Tagalog]
01:02 [Speaking in Tagalog]
01:08 [Speaking in Tagalog]
01:18 [Speaking in Tagalog]
01:20 [Sizzling]
01:23 Wow!
01:24 [Sizzling]
01:29 [Speaking in Tagalog]
01:33 [Sizzling]
01:41 [Horses neighing]
01:43 [Speaking in Tagalog]
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.
02:17 [Music]
02:25 [Speaking in Tagalog]
02:28 [Speaking in Tagalog]
02:32 [Music]
02:44 [Speaking in Tagalog]
02:47 [Speaking in Tagalog]
03:03 [Speaking in Tagalog]
03:08 [Music]
03:20 [Speaking in Tagalog]
03:26 [Music]
03:36 [Speaking in Tagalog]
03:42 [Speaking in Tagalog]
03:59 [Speaking in Tagalog]
04:18 [Music]
04:21 [Speaking in Tagalog]
04:27 [Music]
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.
05:17 [Music]
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.
12:10 [Music]
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.
19:25 (swoosh)
19:27 (high pitched noise)
Comments