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Article 3:

Why a rice shortage in the Philippines?

Upi Asia Online

Mong Palatino / April 2, 2008

To access this article, click here.

Article 4:

Is there a rice shortage?

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Cielito Habito / April 13, 2008

To access this article, click here.

b) Personal Response

When I first read these two articles on the rice shortage problem in the Philippines, I was taken aback for a while because I didn’t know we have this dilemma right now. Therefore, I thought the government is doing a great job in hiding this fact because it doesn’t feel like we are running out of rice until now that I have encountered there articles. I noticed the major difference between these articles right away because one is arguing the fact that there is a decreased in rice supply in the Philippines and the other maintains that this country is very self-sufficient in rice production. I think the conflicting viewpoints and some of the disagreeing information given by these two articles are based on their origins. The article that shows a negative image of the situation, titled “Why a rice shortage in the Philippines?” is not a local newspaper but a global news site on the internet. The “Is there a rice shortage?” article was extracted from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a major local newspaper in the Philippines. The global news site is not from the Philippines and is free to paint a picture of a situation without thinking about the reaction of the government. Local newspapers, like the Philippine Daily Inquirer, have more pressure to make the government look good and would probably want to steer away from controversies and criticisms from the government. However, there are still similar information given such as the corruption of the rice markets, but I still think the people of the Philippines needs to know the truth. When’s all said and done, it is the government’s responsibility to declare valid facts whether there is a rice shortage problem or not.

c) Questions

1)      Why is the Philippines, one of the top rice producers in the world, importing rice from other countries to feed its people?

2)      How can the traders and government officials’ mistreatments towards the farmers be related to the quantity of their rice output?

3)      Why is the act of increasing the rice production sector in the Philippine economy not helping to improve the national rice shortage problem?

4)      If there is no rice shortage problem, why are the companies increasing the prices for the rice now especially when the population is starting to grow at an overwhelming rate?

5)      What do you think the consequences the farmers, the government, and the public are going to pay due to the dishonesty in the rice markets, where imported rice from other countries are bought in a much lower price than the same rice sold to the Philippines?

6)      Why isn’t the government charging the officials that are creating corruption in the rice markets when that fact is clearly obvious to the public?