One of the more positive developments in the country is the continued strength of the Philippine peso vis-a-vis the dollar. While this augurs well for the Philippine economy in general, the stronger peso that averages now in the range of P43 to $1 has, however, reduced the income of the families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in terms of lesser amount of equivalent pesos for the dollar remittances they receive.
With the winter stockpiling of crude oil by many western countries, crude prices reached $95 per barrel yesterday. It is not farfetched it could indeed hit $100 per barrel as earlier forecast by some international market analysts. The domestic pump prices of gasoline and diesel have been increasing by an average of 50 centavos per liter. To date, the pump price of gasoline is more than P44 per liter which is ironically higher than the P43 to $1 exchange rate.
We import the bulk of our crude oil requirements mostly from the Middle East. Net oil imports for 2006 stood at 100.8 million barrels, for a net oil import bill worth $6.8 billion. The government, though, has been pursuing a program to lessen the country’s dependence on imported crude oil and eventually make us more self-reliant on energy supply through the development of renewable and alternative energy sources that include geothermal and sun and wind power.
It is also worth mentioning that other government agencies like the Department of Agriculture (DA) have been doing their own share to reduce our dependence on imported “milking cows.” They are not the kind of milking cows referred to by this popular idiomatic expression. But still, these imported milking cows cause drain in our country’s foreign exchange reserves. The DA is undertaking a program to specifically lessen our country’s dollar expenses on imported milk and dairy product requirements. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap impressed this upon me when he dropped by in our Tuesday Club breakfast gathering at the EDSA Shangri-La.
In particular, Yap cited the DA is intensifying its efforts to make our country self-sufficient also in meeting the milk requirements of Filipinos. I found out from him that we import as much as $400 million worth of dairy products every year, mostly from Australia and New Zealand. In the last two years, according to him, there has been a severe restriction in milk supplies. From an article he read from the International Herald Tribune, he is worried that the price of milk has skyrocketed in the last eight months and demand for milk is actually outpacing the demand for gasoline.
This is why, Yap told me, he was very glad to learn that no less than former President Joseph Estrada has chosen to lead the so-called “white revolution” as a project that the latter would pursue following the grant of presidential pardon. Estrada announced this to The STAR a day after he was freed from his rest house detention in Tanay, Rizal last week. Yap welcomed the announcement of his “ninong” that he would actively promote the “white revolution”, or a program to promote higher milk production of Philippine carabaos that the former President started while he was still a Senator. While it is public knowledge that Yap was once an economics student of President Arroyo in Ateneo, not many knew that he is one of the many wedding godsons of Estrada.
Yap disclosed the DA has designed a program to strengthen the national breeder base of Philippine carabaos, preferably with the Indian bull which is acclimatized to tropical weather. Under this program, he explained, the DA would implement a combination of artificial insemination, embryo transplant and live importation of Indian bulls. “Perhaps, my ninong could donate to this artificial insemination,” he wisecracked.
Levity aside, Yap estimated it will cost the government around P500 million over the next three years to undertake this all over the country. He intends to implement this through “counter-parting scheme” with the private business sector involved in the milk/dairy venture, the various local government units (LGUs), and the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC), an attached agency of the DA. The PCC is a government institution put up in 1992 based on Republic Act 7301, otherwise known as the Propagation and Development of Philippine Carabaos Act.
This was the first and only law authored in Congress by Estrada as a Senator. Yap said this lone Erap law should not be sneered at because of the great strides it has done in improving the quality of Philippine carabaos since the PCC’s establishment. The PCC, located in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija, was completed and inaugurated when Estrada became President in 1998. The PCC is mandated to develop new species of Philippine carabaos to increase milk and meat productivity. Before the establishment of the PCC, our native carabaos or water buffalos could only produce one liter of milk a day.
After studies and experiments on cross breeding with Indian bulls, the PCC has been able to raise hybrid carabaos that can produce as much as six to eight liters of milk a day. Yap pointed out that the type of milk produced by local carabaos has seven to eight percent fat which can be processed to higher end dairy products like cheese for more profit unlike milking cows from Holstein, Fressian and Jersey breeds. The PCC and the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCCARD) bared last month their joint project to produce the first “cloned” super carabaos that could produce as much as 15 to 18 liters of milk a day.
Yap has been busy with the Arroyo administration’s programs to bring food on the table that includes more milk and dairy products in the daily intake of Pinoys. Through this “white revolution” that the DA Secretary is pushing, it could become a bridge of understanding and support between President Arroyo and Estrada in their common desire to feed the hungry Filipinos.
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