MANILA, Philippines — When, in December last year, the Philippines imported some 1.5 million metric tons of rice from Vietnam, nobody said a word, not even the nonstop talking politicos.
All of a sudden now, newspapers are exploding with reports about the call of some lawmakers, egging Congress to investigate that particular shipment. Uh-oh. You can smell some PR stunts right away. It’s time again for them to shine, right?
The noise apparently resulted from a report by a foreign wire agency, Reuters, claiming that the Philippines bought the rice at $550 per ton, which was above the prevailing market price of $380 per ton.
In other words, somebody made a killing!
We can thus only expect some opposition lawmakers to ride on this media merry-go-round. As sure as we will eat rice today and tomorrow, our beloved politicos are not failing us. They are opening their big mouths again.
* * *
BUT HERE is the thing: The Philippines actually got a good deal from Vietnam at that time. I am not sure just exactly where that $380-per-ton figure came from, but I know that the world price of rice never went down below $400 per ton last year.
The Rice Committee of the Board of Trade of Thailand is the industry reference on world rice prices. Last December, it pegged the FOB (freight on board) price at between $456 and $459 per ton.
That excluded the shipping costs and other expenses. In comparison, the $500-per-ton price gotten by the Philippines from Vietnam, from what I gathered, already included freight costs, bid and performance bonds, surveyor’s fees and what have you.
Besides, the shipment was payable in eight months. If somebody else could give us a better deal than that, he should have joined the bidding for the Philippine order. Surely, he would have gotten the deal.
You see, that shipment went through the scrutiny of the Private Sector Procurement Transparency Group, or the PSPTG, headed by lawyer Paterno Menzon, representing the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference of the Philippines (BBCP).
I don’t know if you could actually fool around with that group.
* * *
IF THERE is any good thing that our beloved politicos can do for a change, they can, for instance, pat that group on the back for a change.
Last February, only a few months after the deal, world rice prices went up to another planet at more than $600 per ton, everything included.
It seems the Department of Agriculture, which spearheaded the deal with Vietnam, already saw the uptrend.
The DA actually asked eight countries for quotes—the United States, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Pakistan, Thailand, China and Vietnam.
Only Vietnam and Thailand responded. Thailand’s offers were all above $600 per ton.
If the DA did not take a cue from Thailand’s pricing, and it threw the offer much lower from Vietnam, I know some people who would now personally castrate everybody in department.
* * *
NOW, THIS country actually produces at lot of rice, covering roughly 90 percent of the entire consumption of more than 90 million people.
We have to buy the remaining 10 percent from abroad. It is critical supply, nevertheless, because its price always dictates the domestic prices of our staple food. The rice traders take a cue from the price of imported rice.
Here are the facts: On the average, rice fetched at P31 to P34 per kilo in the markets here last month, against P36 to P38 in June last year.
What explains the drop? Well, I think we had a lot of rice last month. If only for that, our show-off politicos should shut up already, thank you!
* * *
IN REACTION to our tidbit (June 15) on the effort of DBP president Rey David to bring home stranded OFWs in the Middle East, OWWA Administrator Carmelita S. Dimzon wrote:
“Your column highlighted the role of the business sector in the recent repatriation of 150 distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). It applauded Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and Bank of the Philippines Islands (BPI) for their participation in the ‘rescue mission.’ Rightly so, for they helped bring home the distressed workers who, unfortunately, had left the country to seek work overseas without registering with POEA and OWWA.
“The whole mission was undertaken by OWWA in close coordination with the three sponsors, the Philippine missions, particularly the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices, at the concerned posts. You wondered why OWWA took charge of only the ‘rest’ when repatriation was supposed to be its job.
“We would like to inform you that OWWA is authorized by law to shoulder the repatriation costs of its member-workers only. Given this legal restriction, we could only pay for the repatriation tickets of the OWWA members who were in the batches of OFWs who came home on that day.
“However, upon arrival at the airport, every worker, whether an OWWA member or not, was assisted by OWWA. We provided inland transportation, temporary board and lodging at OWWA, medical services, counseling, etc., to those who needed such services. This is what OWWA does every time we have repatriation cases.”
