EDITORIAL

Total Transparency In Rice Importation

The National Food Authority is putting premium on transparency in its conduct of all rice bidding. It is for this reason that NFA administrator Jessup P. Navarro is inviting all interested parties to observe the bidding scheduled on December 8 and 15 for the importation of a total of 1.2 million metric tons of rice.

Navarro emphasized that the conduct of the bidding for the rice importation strictly complies with the provision of R.A. 9184 or the Government Procurement Law requiring that purchases by government entities should be transparent and open to public scrutiny.

The dates for the pre-bidding and bidding proper have already been published in nationally-circulated newspapers to give interested parties enough time to participate and comply with the bidding requirements.

Aside from rice suppliers, the NFA is inviting representatives from government agencies, farmer organizations, rice retailers and the media to observe the bidding process, all of whom will be provided with copies of the abstract of bids.

"Any interested party can look at the records of the bidding, check and make comparisons in the prices being offered by participating bidders and even interact with the rice exporting companies present during the event," said Navarro.

"Rice is a very sensitive commodity and we would not want to have any issue to be raised against its purchase," Navarro added.

The December 8 and 15 scheduled tender immediately follows the December 1 tender for 600,000 metric tons. During the December 1 bidding, Vietnam Southern Food Corp. (VINAFOOD) offered the lowest price quoted at US$ 598 per metric ton cost and freight followed by Louis Dreyfus at US$ 599 per metric ton and Chaiyaporn Company Rice Ltd. at US$ 639.95 per metric ton. The NFA is still to award the contract. The rice imports are set to arrive from February until May 2010.

The NFA has also awarded to VINAFOOD and Daewoo International Corp. the contract for the supply of 250,000 metric ton of 25 percent broken long grains white rice in the bidding held last Nov. 4. The rice is scheduled to be delivered from January to April, 2010.

"We want to have the assurance there will be sufficient supply of rice at the start of the year," Navarro assured.

The estimated perennial 10 percent deficit in the country’s supply of rice, which is being augmented by importation, was further compounded by the estimated drop of about 1.3 million metric tons in palay production due to the successive typhoons that hit the major rice producing areas of the Philippines in the last three months of 2009.

To compare the NFA buying price for locally produced palay with imported rice at P28.20 per kilogram to P29.75, the NFA buying price for locally produced palay is very much lower.

Why does NFA pay higher to imported rice and pay lower for locally produced palay?

Most Filipinos Clueless About Automation

Sen. Chiz Escudero this week expressed alarm about the latest Pulse Asia survey showing that 6 of 10 Filipinos are clueless about the automated election system for the 2010 polls.

"If the Comelec can’t even conduct an effective information campaign on the system, what more a full automation of the elections?" Escudero asked, who is the co-chair of the congressional oversight committee on poll automation.

He said the Comelec should now give a full update on the progress of the implementation full automation of the 2010 polls.

"We have not heard the Comelec provides a complete picture of where we are now in so far as this historic undertaking is concerned," Escudero stressed.

Conducted between Oct. 22 and 30, the Pulse Asia survey shows that only 13 percent of the 1,800 respondents said they know a lot about the automated election system while another 26 percent said they know enough of it.

Most of those who expressed knowledge about the system were from Metro Manila and among higher income classes, the pollster said.

"With barely five months to go before the elections, more than half of our people don’t know how the system will work. If the survey did not come out, the Comelec would not have bothered to tell us about their plan to launch a massive information drive," Escudero said.

In Aklan, election automation information effort is nil. Aklanons need basic knowledge on election automation. /MP