Rice Shortage & Prison Idol Gloria Arroyo

Once again the idol of Cebu Provincial criminal prison inmates blamed “politics” and the senate in particular for their “failure” to walk with the “anointed” one in putting food on the Filipino masses table. Pure bravado I should say of Madame de NBN y de la ZTE in recognizing the problem of putting food on the table but she is missing the point on why people are not joining her dirty hands and closing ranks with her sycophant followers…… for sure the convicts wanted to close ranks with her and she might as well be their lead dancer the next time they cooked up a “protest” dance that is the embodiment of “Filipino Pride” among the perverted cuckoo nesters not realizing it was seen more as an aberration.

In her speech in Mt. Samat, Bataan on the commemoration of Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor), which I quote:

This is no time for political posturing. We need food on the table, not headlines in the newspapers. We must invest not just investigate. It’s time for action, not political wrangling.

But Madame de Highway Robbery, one of the reasons why there is no food on the table for poor Filipinos is the fact that the anointed ones are untouchable in your administratong errr administration such as the Rice Cartel or the Binondo 7 identified in the senate hearings composed of the following:

1. Joaquin Go Soliman (JOMERCO Trading)


2. Pio Sy Lato (PNS Grains Center)


3. Ramon Ang Syson (Family Native Supply)


4. Gil Go (Jocardo Merchandising)


5. Leoncio Tan/Janet Tiu (Leoneco Merchandising)


6. Santos See (Manila Goodyear)


7. Teofredo Co (Teofredo Trading).
   

Even the Secretary of Injustice confirms the existence of the Binondo 7 so was there any investigation conducted by SiRAULO GOONzales? Or is Mr. GOONzales more prone to run after whistleblowers even setting up a “task Force” to intimidate errr investigate the whistleblowers to keep them quiet like what Prison Idol Gloria Arroyo did to Acsa Ramirez?

I almost fell for the Joan of Arc stance of La Gloria in another praise release where she warns “rice and bread bandits” to cease or face prison terms but if indeed she was serious she can start right in her own backyard……. Remember Joc Joc Bolante and the P3 Billion Fertilizer scam? Heck, the plundering of the P728 Million fertilizer fund diverted to finance La Gloria’s 2004 cheating errr election is one of the main reasons why we have rice shortage today. Ok, so any of the Binondo 7 in trouble yet? Were they part of those they arrested or is this another comedic magic show of now you see it now you don’t?

In a Manila Times Special Report: Food Security, Distmantling Rice Cartel by Nora O. Gamolo on Binondo 7, which I quote:

These personalities are respected Tsinoys who are also the influential members of the government-accredited Confederation of Filipino Rice and Corn Traders Association, or CONFED.

The Big Seven are alleged to control Dagupan Street in Metro Manila, depicted as a wholesaling center that supplies 45 percent of the total rice needs of Metro Manila. Its supply ends up in two other districts, Binondo (in Chinatown) and Paco, whose middlemen and retailers were alleged also to be controlled by the Big Seven.

The government found out that 22 percent of the daily rice consumption of Metro Manila come from the Dagupan-Binondo-Paco area. The cartel allegedly operates through a network of structured traders that funnel production to it, and at the same time are allowed to import heftily, having cornered valuable import quotas due to a liberal rice importation climate.

So how can they not notice the activities of the cartel controlling a big chunk of the Metro Manila market? How can they operate all these years and even belong to "respected" organizations and to top it all treated as "well respected" members of the community is just as bizarre as it can get. Well, in the land of cheats where might is right and greed is the driving force of any business undertaking whose market philosophy was monopolistic than servicing the needs of the market you expect this aberration as normal and even gain "respect"........ respect among thieves I should say.

Too much politics she says is not helping alleviate the plight of the poor so she enlists the Catholic Church in the rice distribution. Well, if that is not using rice for political gimmickry and appeasing the prelates against her, I don’t know what is?

What is the point of spending P2.6 Billion for the recently concluded Burangay errr Barangay and SK elections if in times of crisis they are not utilized for the purpose of making sure the poor gets their rice allocation? The elected Barangay officials and SKs ought to know the economic standings of those belonging to their respective barangays and with 41,975 barangay units spread all over the Philippines they are the best distribution outlets compared to the church. Or are they a bunch of crooks not to be trusted just like their counterpart the corrupt traditional politicians fleecing the nation dry? Leave it to the thief errr chief executive acting more like a supervisor than a chief executive to bungle up the rice crisis even more with her hypocrisy of blaming politics as the culprit when she herself shamelessly uses the crisis to divert peoples attention to what ails the nation which is…….herself.

Boy Montelibano says it all in his column "Rice, Church and State" on the role of the church which I quote:

The Church and the State are not strange bedfellows. They have cooperated, connived and colluded in the Philippines for centuries. They have remained in control together despite intermittent spats. The fruits of their labor are shared, not so much in genuine generosity, but in a natural division of spoils. Around them, there is scandalous poverty of the landless, the homeless and the hungry, millions of Filipino families without rights to land, without resources for decent homes, without capacity to grow their food—or money to buy enough of it. And in the center of this sea of misery that has defied the efforts of perennial do-gooders are the government of the Philippines and the Catholic Church.

La Gloria is in a bind and if Credit Suisse is right she needs US$1.3 Billion to stabilize rice supply or 1 percent of our GNP. No matter what she does it is mostly the poor who suffers the most or 60% of the population earning less than US2 per day that has to grapple with spiralling price of rice. Corruption and thievery which seems to be part and parcel of any government project under the Arroyo regime exacerbate an already volatile situation and in three months (harvest time) from now we have to watch very closely how the hungry masses will react to these problems.

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