Militant labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno today called on the government to stop blaming previous typhoons for reduced rice production in 2009, saying natural calamities merely highlight bigger problems in Philippine agriculture. 

The Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that domestic rice production fell by more 3.31 percent in 2009. It said typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, which battered the country in October and November last year, were responsible for the reduction. But KMU noted that the Philippines remains one of the world’s biggest importer of rice for more than a decade. 

“The problem is the orientation of domestic agriculture, and of the economy as whole. The Philippine economy remains export-oriented, import-dependent. Local agricultural production is geared to meeting the cash-crop demands of the international market, not the food needs of the Filipino people,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson.

“The typhoons, while devastating indeed, are being used as scapegoats. They are not the main causes of problems in the country’s rice production. They merely highlight far bigger man-made problems in Philippine agriculture,” he added. 

Labog said the agriculture’s orientation to foreign demands can be seen in the reduction of actual rice production through the years, especially with the advent of economic globalization. In 1989, the country produced almost 9.5 billion tons of palay, while in 2009, the figure is only 16.26 million tons. 

“The figures show just how mindlessly anti-people the orientation of rice production in the country is. As a rice-eating people, we have reduced palay production in the face of a growing population, reduced rice exportation of other countries, and recent problems such as climate change,” Labog said. 

“In blaming the recent typhoons, the government is being criminally negligent at best. What course of action does that analysis suggest? That we should pray harder, perhaps give more offering to saints, so typhoons won’t hit the country? Even religious people will not like that. Nasa Diyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa,” said the labor leader. 

KMU said the export orientation of Philippine agriculture is being implemented by big foreign agro-businesses and landlords, who monopolize land in the country, in connivance with the government. 

“They are the ones responsible for prioritizing cash crops over rice and other products needed by Filipinos. They cannot be expected to prioritize the needs of the people over the needs of the global market. That’s another reason why their landholdings should either be nationalized or subjected to land reform and distributed to the tillers,” Labog said.

KMU said the ongoing nationwide caravan of farmers, dubbed as “Pambansang Lakbayan ng Anakpawis para sa Lupa at Katarungan,” articulates the call to end dependence on rice imports and to push for the development of agriculture through genuine land reform.

“Farmers in the nationwide Lakbayan are convinced that the festering problems of rice shortage and hunger can only be solved by dismantling the monopoly of lands and foreign domination over the economy,” Labog said. The caravan will climax with a mobilization to Mendiola on Jan. 22, the 23rd anniversary of the Mendiola. #