DA to NFA: Move rice to Visayas T WORLD » A7
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By Ada Pelonia
HE Department of Agriculture (DA) has ordered the National Food Authority (NFA) to move rice stocks to Visayas for the upcoming P20 per kilo rice program. Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. instructed the grains agency to start repositioning rice stocks to the Visayas region for the launch of the P20 per kilo rice program. “It will take several weeks to transfer tens even hundreds of thousands of 50-kilo bags rice from NFA warehouses, particularly from Mindoro, to various parts of the Visayas,” Laurel said in a statement. The agency has already secured
clearance from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to roll out the P20 per kilo program. It added that the subsidy for the lower-priced rice will be shared equally by the DA’s Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) and participating local government units (LGUs). Under this initiative, rice will come from the NFA’s buffer stocks. As of last week, the grains agency’s stocks reached a five-year high of 378,157 metric tons (MT) or equivalent to 7.56 million 50-kilo bags of rice, which can feed Filipinos for 10 days. Currently, the DA said NFA warehouses in Iloilo alone hold the equivalent of 862,409 sacks of rice. Despite this, NFA Administrator Lar-
ry Lacson noted the need to move rice from Mindoro to supplement areas with limited rice production, such as Cebu, Negros Island, Samar, and Leyte. “The additional stocks for the Visayas will mainly come from Mindoro Island, where the NFA inventory exceeds 830,000 bags of rice,” Lacson said. The NFA chief explained, as an example, that transferring 40,000 sacks of rice from Mindoro to Cebu could take up to a month. Laurel stressed that the Visayas was chosen for the pilot run of the P20 per kilo rice program due to its higher-thanaverage poverty rate, which exceeds the national average of 10.9 percent. He added that in some regions, such as Negros Island and Eastern
Visayas, the poverty rate is more than double or 22.6 percent and 20.3 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, governors from the region have also endorsed the program and are ready to share part of the subsidy. Initially expected to run only until December, the DA is now reviewing and fine-tuning the plan following the directive of President Marcos to expand the initiative nationwide and sustain it through 2028. In addition to providing affordable rice to millions of Filipinos, the DA said this initiative will also help clear space in NFA warehouses, allowing it to procure more palay from local farmers at higher prices.
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DEBT-FUELED PURCHASE OF BASIC ITEMS FLAGGED www.businessmirror.com.ph
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Monday, April 28, 2025 Vol. 20 No. 197
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By Cai U. Ordinario @caiordinario
ILIPINO households are purchasing basic goods using debts, and this has sparked concern among experts such as ANZ Research and some local economists about the sustainability of the country’s economic growth. Consumption accounts for 70 percent of the country’s GDP. ANZ Research said the latest consumer expenditure survey by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed households availed themselves of loans to purchase “basic goods.” “Before the pandemic, only 35 percent of households used financing to purchase basic goods. This has remained elevated since 2020, rising to 57 percent in Q4 [fourth quarter] 2024,” ANZ Research siad. “This reflects a lack of wage growth in the economy. Although
inflation has subsided, prices of basic goods remain elevated, and wages haven’t risen enough to compensate for the price increase,” it added. Ateneo de Manila University Leonardo Lanzona Jr. told BusinessMirror that increasing household debts can lead to higher consumption and, consequently, faster economic growth.
When debt becomes risky
WHILE not all debt is bad or a See “Debt,” A2
‘PHL SHOULD JOIN IN BOOSTING WTO AMID U.S. TARIFF SWINGS’ By Andrea E. San Juan
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HE Philippines should join other countries in advocating for the revival of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) rules-based trading system by giving it more credibility and enforcement powers amid Washington’s flip-flopping tariff policy instead of merely going to the negotiating table. “I don’t think we can lose anything by negotiating. But the whole problem is that these decisions are hardly permanent and would seem to be based on discretion rather than rules,” Ateneo De Manila Univeristy (ADMU) economist Leonardo A. Lanzona told the BusinessMirror in a Viber message on Sunday. “We need to back the WTO whose function is to stabilize global trade with the primary condition that everyone cooperates,” Lanzona added. He pointed out that in today’s “fragmented world,” the WTO has been “sidelined by protectionism and great power regime.” With this, Lanzona called on countries to “advocate its revival by reforming the WTO to meet the present-day technologically driven world.” He also said big economies “should stop Trump’s bullying by giving the WTO more credibility and enforcement powers,” add-
ing, “Without these, any plans may be ineffective.” For his part, former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Dante Canlas said, “The optimal policy stance is to resume ASAP trade with the US and maintain multilateralism aligned with WTO principles.” Canlas said the Philippine team “must impress upon their US counterparts that the number one manufactured export of the Philippines is semiconductors,” which he said “is really a re-export of US parts and components to the US, a mutually beneficial trade.” Meanwhile, Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. (Philexport) President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr. told this paper that the Philippines should not offer anything to the United States amid the fluid situation. “At the end of the day, [there’s nothing we can] negotiate. We shouldn’t even offer anything. Now it’s time for the Philippines to get something quietly because [we are not the] target. We are not detaching from the dollar. We have no plans to join BRICS,” he told the BusinessMirror in a phone interview, speaking partly in Filipino. For the Philexport chief, if the country negotiates, “Most probably, we can offer agriculture, but agriculture cannot take that anymore. We negotiate but our negotiation there is a negotiation of good followers. If See “PHL,” A2
BRUSH RUSH: 1,000 ARTISTS COMPETE AT THE 20TH GSIS NATIONAL ART COMPETITION Nearly 1,000 artists from across the Philippines converged at the GSIS complex on April 26 for the 20th GSIS National Art Competition—marking the biggest turnout in the event’s history. From South Cotabato to Palawan, paintings made their way by tricycle, taxi, delivery van, and ferry, all for a shot at the record-breaking P2.555-million prize pool. Artists lined up as early as 7 a.m., masterpieces in tow, flooding the gymnasium with color, passion, and hope. Each canvas—whether representational or nonrepresentational—carried dreams of making it to the finals. Finalists will be announced in mid-May, with winners to be revealed in June during GSIS’s founding anniversary celebration. (Top left) AAP president Fidel Sarmiento and vice president Roger Santos assist in lining up the entries that filled the GSIS gym from floor to ceiling. PHOTOS COURTESY OF VERONICA V. WUSON
Foreign borrowing approvals by MB up 118.9% in Q1
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OREIGN borrowing approvals of the Monetary Board more than doubled in the first three months of the year, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). The Monetary Board approved a total of $6.29 billion in public sector foreign borrowings in the first quarter of the year. This represented a growth of 118.91 percent from the $2.87 billion posted in the first quarter of 2024. The bulk of these approved borrowings consisted of the national government’s debt paper issuances amounting to $3.33 billion. “Proceeds of the bond issuances will be used to fund various budget
requirements of the National Government, including socioeconomic programs and projects, as well as settlement of maturing financial obligations,” BSP said. Under Section 20, Article VII of the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines and Letter of Instructions No.158 dated January 21, 1974, the Monetary Board’s approval is required for all foreign loans. This covers all foreign borrowing proposals by the National Government, government agencies, and government financial institutions as well as loans to be guaranteed by the national government.
THREADING CHANGE THE BIG PUSH FOR LOCAL COTTON PRODUCTION With special guest Arnold Atienza of the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority
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PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.5210 n JAPAN 0.3962 n UK 75.4103 n HK 7.2853 n CHINA 7.7534 n SINGAPORE 43.1162 n AUSTRALIA 36.2130 n EU 64.3774 n KOREA 0.0395 n SAUDI ARABIA 15.0683 Source: BSP (April 25, 2025)