WITH the complaints from rice farmers against the entry of cheap imported NFA rice, it is now clear, the government does not want to improve local production and is focusing instead on importation.

This is, in effect, subsidizing Thailand and Vietnam rice producers who are already fully subsidized by their own governments.

People who planned to expand rice production now have thought twice. Expect NFA to import more making NFA incur billions and billions of losses.

These losses could have helped local farmers if used to put up NFA post harvest facilities in rice areas to buy the palay of farmers. Government said NFA buys at something like P17 a kilo but if you are a farmer, will you sell to NFA?

No! You will lose more, especially the small farmers who have no drying facilities and have to transport their produce to where NFA buys palay.

* * *

It is made so that NFA does not buy palay. And the poor farmers have to content themselves with the local traders who take advantage of the situation.

When you sell to NFA, it buys only palay with a certain level of moisture content and purity. Farmers do not have instruments to measure moisture content in their farm and NFA rejects palay that, in their thinking, does not meet its requirements.

Or NFA makes deductions. Only some palm-greasing can solve it. I should know. This is an experience. Some 30 to 25 years ago I was selling to NFA but got so disappointed.

I have no quarrel with government giving doleouts to some poor people, if only it pays more attention to food security.

At the rate the rice producers are not helped, where does food security come in?

* * *

And there’s another problem, national security.

There has been a lot of discussion about the Memorandum of Agreement on the Ancestral Domain between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

It’s difficult to say whether this was a good move or not. But the fact that it angered many people, this MOA-AD must be cancelled and discussed all over again.

The defect must be cured. What angered many people, both Christian and Muslims, was there were no consultations with the people affected. Now Hermogenes Esperon is being asked to resign and there were those who even filed a move to impeach the President.

Unless cancelled, the strident voices of the opposition will continue… This is bad.

* * *

The principle of self determination is very basic and an honored tradition internationally.

This is the right of the people – repeat, people, and not government officials – to decide on their own destiny. It was enshrined in the organization of the League of Nations after World War I and in the United Nations after World War II.

The peace processes among warring groups always followed this principle of self-determination. People were made to choose themselves what kind of government they will have and how they run that government.

The principle of self determination was enunciated in the speech of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson before the Joint U.S. Congress on Jan. 8, 1918 when he said, “It will be our wish and purpose that the process of peace, when they are begun, shall be absolutely open and that shall involve and permit no secret understanding of any kind…”

Here we have a secret pact called MOA-AD hatched by the government and the MILF without consultations with the people involved in it.

* * *

These past few days I have been reading a book, “Muslims in the Philippines” by historian and scholar Cesar Adib Majul which I borrowed from the city library.

A close reading of the book shows, the problem in Muslim Mindanao is not the people there but the wicked and greedy leaders.

The people there want peace and to live in prosperity. It is the leaders who, for their own aggrandizement, want to create a state for them to rule.

I focused on the chapters the “Moro Wars” and found them very interesting.

The problem also has been with our national leadership. They failed to address the deeper problem of the Muslims, the problem of having dignity, respect, and attention.

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