Birth control at home and friendly ties with the world’s top rice exporters will help the Philippines survive soaring food prices, President Gloria Arroyo said yesterday.
Even though yields are growing above the population growth rate of 2.04 percent thanks to state investments in the farm sector, Manila is a way off self-sufficiency in the staple grain, she told a group of businesswomen.
One of the world’s largest rice importers, Manila has been hard-pressed to meet its import target this year of 2.7 million tonnes as prices have soared due to bad weather, the rise of the biofuels industry, urbanization, and strong global demand, among others.
“We are challenged to promote birth spacing because even if our rice production is growing more than our population we have been importing rice since the Spanish [colonial] times and we have not yet closed that gap,” Arroyo said.
Population control programs in this Roman Catholic country have often foundered in the past due to opposition from the church, which says artificial contraceptives promote sexual promiscuity and immorality.
Arroyo also gave herself a pat on the back for having anticipated the rice price crisis.
“The critical reaction is for exporting countries to husband their own stocks because prices are going up even in the exporting countries,” she said. “We have reached out to Vietnam and Thailand long before the shortage.”
Arroyo said “traditional relationships are a key element as sellers are forced to choose between hordes of willing buyers.”
She said “the buyers who bought early are the only ones with rice. Only those who come to the party early leave with party favors. Thank goodness the Philippines is one of them.”
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS