CONGRATULATIONS to the new lawyers, especially the two topnothcers, Jennifer T. Ong of U.P. and Yvanna Maalat of Ateneo, second and third placers, respectively, both from Bacolod.

Ong’s maternal grandaunt, Lily Valencia was also No. 2 in a bar exam years ago. Maalat is the daughter of lawyer Jack and Carissa Maalat, granddaughter of Mrs. Nena de Leon.

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Food security must be the primary concern of every head of a family and the head of a country.

The greatest legacy of Gov. Joseph Marañon is his advocacy of food security for Negros. Not just in rice but also in meat.

Gov. Isidro Zayco is carrying on. I talked to him the other day and he said, in response to farmers’ complaints in Bago, together with Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer that he will take up with officials of China Water and Electric Co. the delay in irrigation repairs in Bago.

CWE – sounds like ZTE – is delayed in its payment to sub-contractors. Without funding, contractors also limit their workers. This causes the delay.

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Prices, basic economics will tell you, cannot be legislated. It is governed by supply and demand that we call the market forces. Rice prices are up because of supply shortage. Want to pull them down? Produce the supply. Import? That’s only palliative.

And how do you increase production? Leave the price to market forces. By importing and selling at a loss competing with local producers, you destroy production incentive. This has been our problem.

But why is this not followed? We sound like a broken record, the cause is corruption. Some people make plenty of money.

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I want to cite very briefly how food security is practiced. In the 1930s, the U.S. limited sugar importation from us from a high of 1.4 million tons to only 980,000 tons a year with the Sugar Limitation Law. The reason was they saw war clouds over Asia with Japan arming. So, they developed the sugar industry in Cuba. That’s food security.

After World War I, sugar prices soared too high. The U.S. built sugar mills here. Our old sugar mills were built between 1918 and 1923. The purpose was food security.

In the 60s the U.S. cut off diplomatic relations with Cuba. The U.S. turned to us and built new mills. Food security.

We prefer the U.S. market because it pays premium price in order not to compete with their own sugar producers, beet and cane.

That’s food security. Ours, we don’t think of food security.

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It was reported we will borrow from China P30 billion to boost production. In exchange of what? After Spratly, this might now be part of Palawan.

Besides, we don’t need that loan. What we just need is to stop the bleeding of funds caused by NFA importation where, reports said, NFA lost P145 billion in a period of 11 years. Or an average of P13 billion a year. Why can this not be sued to boost production?

But the problem is, who will administer it? Given to politicians to buy fertilizers to distribute to the farmers? It’s Jocjoc Bolante all over again. Liquid fertilizer costing less than P100 a quart in the market, cost P1,800 as liquidated by politicians. And the recipients are mostly ghosts.

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There is a move to bring back the Masagana System. Who will administer? In a land full of corruption, I am afraid money will just go to the pocket of the crooks.

Let the market forces work. Don’t tinker with the price structure. If prices will go high because of lack of supply, leave it to that. When there’s production, prices will go down.

Yesterday afternoon at a BBC debate, the discussion was on food shortage all over the world. Not just the Philippines. Solution: Produce the food.

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Meanwhile, I want to greet St. John’s Institute on its Golden Jubilee next year and the preparation is being started now.

The role of St. John’s Institute, formerly known as Hua Ming, in bringing closer the Chinese and Filipino community here has been very impressive.

St. John’s Institute authorities should make plans on how can these be impressed on the public. It must be well promoted.

I have seen myself the growth of Hua Ming the last 50 years, being close to the two men behind Hua Ming, Msgr. John B. Liu and Msgr. John Su. They ae now in their 80s. Fr. Noly Que is doing a good job taking over.

Last Saturday, I learned Msgr. Liu was in the hospital and Msgr. Su was on a wheel-chair. Negrenses must know what Hua Ming has done to make Bacolod an example of how the two ethnic groups have successfully assimilated.

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