‘Palace food program won’t make poor dependent on gov’t’

Malacañang conceded yesterday that Filipinos need jobs that would allow them to earn money to buy food and other necessities and not just subsidized rice and noodles.

In defense of President Arroyo’s food program, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said it was only meant to temporarily cushion the impact of economic hardships and not designed to make the poor dependent on the government.

National Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Gregorio Tan earlier admitted that subsidized noodles and rice would not be enough to solve the growing hunger problem in the country if poor Filipinos do not have the means to buy food.

"We know very well that the solution to poverty lies in well-paying, dignified jobs and the prospects for these are improving along with the investment climate," Bunye said in a statement.

"The President remains focused on enabling the Filipino people, particularly those living below the poverty line, to enjoy the economic gains we have posted," he added.

In the meantime, Bunye said the government would just have to do what it could to provide affordable food for people who need subsidy.

"We feel that we have made the food available, but if the people do not have the money to buy we cannot feed them, we cannot give away this food," Tan said in a briefing on Wednesday.

A survey by private polling firm Social Weather Stations last month showed that 16.7 percent of Filipinos go hungry at least once every three months. At least half of Filipinos live on less than $2 (about P105) a day.

Tan said only P500 million of the P35-billion economic pump-priming fund for the first quarter had been allocated for the NFA to boost sales of subsidized rice and instant noodles in slum areas nationwide.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos said part of the fund would be used for direct food dole-outs to the "poorest of the poor" in urban centers.

Tan explained that solving the hunger problem required a twofold approach — ensuring the supply of affordable food and boosting the purchasing power of Filipinos.

The NFA’s role, he said, is primarily to make food available and not to boost the income of Filipinos.

The NFA reported losses of P8.3 billion last year and is expecting to lose the same amount this year because it would need to import the same volume of rice for sales and distribution to the same 15 percent of the local rice market.

Tan said that the P35-billion economic pump-priming fund was already factored in the computation of the projected P8.3 billion in losses for this year.

He refused, however, to take the blame for NFA’s heavy losses. "The causes of these losses are not controllable on the part of NFA. Our mandate is to buy high and sell low. Our cost of imports has increased by 109 percent and yet we are selling at the same price," he said. — Aurea Calica