Marketing the Rice Importation Idea?

According to Felipe Medalla, UP Economics professor and former planning secretary: The collective wisdom of the market should decide importation… The more the government interferes in the market, the more the economy is vulnerable to shocks and crisis.

What Medalla is saying is to let the market decide everything and that the government should have lesser interference on importation. But will this give us an assurance that:

• The rice cartel will not be in-charged of the importation?


• That the people will be assured that rice prices will become lower?


• That the government will be able to control smuggling, specifically rice smuggling?


• That the farmers will not be on the negative side should there be importation of rice?

Dahil sa patuloy na denial-to-death ng gobyerno lalong nabubuhay ang rice cartel. With this, magkakaroon kaya ng assurance na hindi ang kartel ang magiging in-charged ng importation?

Siyempre dahil open na ang importation, puwedeng lalong umigting ang smuggling. At siyempre dahil mura ang bigas galing sa smuggling, puwedeng mag-usap ang mga smugglers at ang rice cartel. O di ba, happy together? To note, ni hindi nga nakokontrol ang smuggling so this is not impossible. According to whispering spirits, me mga kakutsaba pa nga ang mga smugglers diyan mismo sa gobyerno. Me mga nagsasabi pa nga na ang ilan sa mga smuggling lords ay nakatira pa sa palasyo.

Lastly, opening up the imports will, of course, hurt the local producers. When the Philippines signed up the WTO and the GATT, wala itong ginawang safety nets para sa mga local producers. Lalo na ngayon na ang concentration ng efforts ng gobyerno ay broadband deal at ang "anti-corruption of the corruption efforts". Ibig sabihin, bahala na ang mga local producers sa kanilang mga sarili.

Kung sabagay, even the government's puppy, si Papa Neri, nagsabi na oligarchy ang Pilipinas. Ibig sabihin, the efforts of the government is designed not to answer the needs and interests of the people (as in the case of the real democracy) but to serve the welfare of the selected few.