Pangasinan (9 April) — Whenever one hears about the kind of ’subsidizing’ of rice price by a government agency, the National Food Authority, to the tune of billions of pesos, what inevitably comes to mind is the word ‘loss’ for government.

Some observers are quick to lament the huge grains purchasing expenditures of NFA (P43 billion in 2006 alone, by some official reports) in trying to stabilize the price of the staple in the market, as though to indicate some mis-spending or profligacy on the part of the agency’s officials. But is that really so—or is it just a case of seeing the forest but not the trees?

Just last month, March, the national government, it is reported, paid about P708 per ton at a tender for imported rice, more than double what it paid for six months ago, a clear indication of a skyrocketing price of rice in the world market.

In the face of what many are now calling a looming rice shortage by the third quarter this year, maybe the whole unpleasant situation the NFA is finding itself in — ‘crucifixion’ for being such a “burden” to the national coffer – can be summed up in one phrase: A useful wastage of funds.

We believe NFA itself knows how much it is bleeding government fund sources dry but given not much options, it has to spend, spend and spend some more buying those rice produce and importing if need be, to guarantee the continued presence of a basic commodity in many family tables for as long as possible. Rice as everybody knows, is a political issue in this country and to keep it away from reach is to court a variety of unspeakable results for any administration.

In this vortex, NFA now finds itself. As Agriculture’s Art Yap put it, NFA has no choice but to keep buying rice for as long as there are sellers from the farmers’ ranks.

Some agencies, it must be admitted, are born or created to earn – and earn lavishly. Some are established to spend and spend lavishly too. Each has an important role to play to keep government turning, in good times or bad. That is the reality of social obligations and transaction. (PIA)