QRs

It is sad testimony to how wrong our agricultural policies have been that economists are now saying the inflation rate will drop as soon as we abandon quantitative restrictions (QRs) on rice.

With the lifting of QRs, rice can be freely imported subject to tariffs our legislators might impose. It is estimated that a 35 percent tariff on rice will be imposed when QRs are lifted.

Notwithstanding that stiff tariff, the price of rice is expected to decrease. Cheaper rice will moderate the inflation rate. It is estimated that the inflation rate for this first quarter of the year could be close to 4 percent.

For years, we pleaded with our trade partners for the extension of the QR regime on rice. In exchange we offered other concessions that took a toll on other sectors of our economy.

After several extensions, we have reached the end of the rope. No further extension, under free trade rules, could be had.

Unfortunately, during the time the QR regime was extended, we did not accomplish much in bringing down the cost of domestic rice production. As a result, imported rice carrying a 35 percent tariff will still be cheaper than domestically produced rice.

Under the QR regime, government set the quantity of rice to be imported during the year. Once the quantity of imports was determined, government issued import permits for traders to undertake the importation. This system, because of the wide price disparities between imported and domestic rice, invited corruption. The high price of rice produced high food poverty in the country.

Under this regime, too, rice aggregators abroad anticipated the volume of Philippine imports and drove up rice prices in their home market as they collected rice supplies to export. This has injured not only our consumers but consumers in the rice-exporting countries as well.

Under the prospective tariff-based regime, anyone can import rice as long as they paid the tariffs. Small-scale importers will drive aggregators out of business since they do not purchase in large quantities. We will end the regime of corruption surrounding government’s monopoly of rice importation and remove incentives fro rice smuggling.

Of course, the flood of imported rice could threaten our domestic rice producers. Because of sheer inefficiency, our rice farmers make very little even as domestic rice prices are very high. Rice cultivation has become a poverty trap.

This is a matter of urgent concern. We will have to sort out this problem without resort to QRs that penalizes our domestic consumers.

The problem is compounded by the fact that the average age of our rice farmers is 57. Young people do not want to go into rice cultivation because of poor economic returns and large swathes of “reformed” farmland are now idle because the plots are too small to be viable.

Shotgun

Several hearings conducted at the Senate over the hazing death of Horacio ‘Atio’ Castillo in the hands of Aegis Juris fraternity members did serve the purpose of keeping the incident in the public eye and hastening investigation of the case. A crime was committed here and all those culpable should be made to pay.

But the report emanating out of those hearings puzzles many. It is as if the report fired a shotgun into a large crowd, recommending charges against the dean of the UST faculty of civil law, the faculty secretary and at least 13 trustees of the Aegis Foundation. As a consequence, the search for the truly culpable could lose focus and, worse, the justice we all want for Atio and his grieving family might not be fully won.

Those present at the brutal initiation rites were named. Charges for violation of the Anti-Hazing Law and other related crimes should be filed against them. They all acted in concert. Their collective act resulted in the death of a neophyte.

Those initiation rites were, it should be emphasized, conducted without authorization from the university authorities. The fraternity was suspended long before the initiation rites began. The school could not possibly be expected to know all their students do outside the campus.

In similar hazing cases resulting in the deaths of neophytes, school authorities were at best admonished but not included in the charges. That is because they had no direct hand in the rituals that resulted in murder.

True, there was an attempt at cover-up on the part of the Aegis Juris members, possibly including some of the alumni. That attempted cover-up was frustrated by speedy police investigation of the case. There is no evidence linking Dean Divina or members of his law firm to any obstruction of justice.

Atio, according to accounts by family and friends idolized his Dean. That might have been a factor encouraging the young man to join the fraternity to which Divina belonged. Even if it was a factor, the Dean could not be held criminally liable for that.

By issuing the report it did, the Senate could stumble into becoming a party in the professional rivalries of big-name lawyers. Divina’s law firm is a rising star in the profession. That could attract jealousies of every sort.

It was lawyer Lorna Kapunan who pushed for Divina’s inclusion among those the Senate recommended should be charged. Earlier, she filed a complaint with the Supreme Court asking for the disbarment of Divina and 20 lawyers in his firm. Now she has filed a case for murder, hazing and obstruction against the dean.

This is grist for keeping the case in the public eye. But it also causes us to lose focus on those directly responsible for the brutality.