As i was writing this one, i am in a quandary regarding the real state of the prime commodity specifically RICE that hit this island of Mindanao known to be the food basket. The price of Rice surge to an all time high of P50.00 and this i cannot understand considering that Mindanao is mostly agricultural and known to be a rice producing island aside from other agricultural products.
I live in the town of Braulio E. Dujali, Davao del Norte which is surrounded by Rice fields, that means, most of the dwellers are farmers. This time, harvest in our place is over and planting season starts, and there’s no question, Braulio E. Dujali has not suffer from shortage of rice, however, businessmen peddling rice at a higher cost to earn more and depriving those poor consumers who are also farmers who can’t afford to buy the nice variety of rice, thus, resort to buy NFA rice.
I am really annoyed by those agencies assigned to regulate the prices of commodities because they are not doing something to prevent the soaring prices of this prime commodities and seemed to be helpless when we needed them most. We relied too much on those Government Agencies like NFA, DTI and DA thinking that they are there to protect the interest and welfare of the consumers and the poor not of the businessmen. But, we waited for the NBI to take actions and raided the warehouses of those alleged unscrupulous businessmen who speculate and hoards to make profit, thus the soaring of the price of rice.
I suppose the president is aware about the situation in Mindanao and should do something to prevent the onslaught of event that would trigger chaos in our country. She should immediately sack those personnel found culprit of conniving with unscrupulous businessmen.
After all, what remains in Mindanao is the BASKET but the FOOD has gone astray.
