High food prices: A salad of 'funding El Nino', WPS blockade, tong, etc.

1. The DA budget is like a dam of water, filled with taxes people pay. But instead of a mighty river that rolls like justice, what records show is a drip-drip of releases, of slow obligation and low absorption.

Third quarter 2020 ito ang resibo: Sa P60.7 bilyon na natanggap nila, P40.8 bilyon lang ang nailaan kung saan gagastusin, at P28.21 bilyon lang sa halagang ito ang aktwal na nagastos.

Hindi rin nagkulang ang Kongreso. Most favored agency status ang DA. Sa Bayanihan I, ang share nito ay P11.39 bilyon. Dinagdagan ng P23.3 bilyon sa Bayanihan II. This was designed as farm aid, to be given in a targeted and timely manner.

Kung mabagal ang pagbigay, kulang sa dilig ang agrikultura. El Niño of the budget kind is as calamitous as the natural one.

Sa kwentadang ito, hindi kasama ang pondong natanggap ng National Irrigation Administration, na sa pre-COVID level batay sa GAA 2020 ay P36.3 bilyon.

2. Kung nakaka-high blood ang presyo ng baboy, mas nakaka-heart attack naman ang presyo ng isda, lalo na ang mga lamang-dagat.

Kung ang national fisheries output natin ay banyera ng isda, nahahati ito sa tatlong compartments: commercial, municipal, aquaculture.

Bumaba sa P61 bilyon noong 2020 ang kontribusyon ng commercial fisheries, kumpara sa P63.5 bilyong naitala noong 2019. Bumaba rin ang municipal fisheries, o yung pamamalakaya malapit sa baybayin, nang 2.48% mula P100.3 bilyon noong 2019 sa P97.9 bilyon noong nakaraang taon. Buti na lang, pataas ang ani mula sa fish ponds, fish cages na nasa ilalim ng aquaculture.

We should now be able to compute forgone losses from Beijing's decision to grab the WPS as a Chinese lake, exclusive to their fishers who are under pressure to meet the huge appetite of 1.4 billion people for seafood.

When our traditional protein source is fenced off as a no fishing zone to our fishermen, an edict which will now be enforced by gunboats who have been given authority to fire, the effect reaches our table.

When there is a naval blockade to our fishing grounds, the flow of fish to the market stops.

3. Isang issue ito kung saan hindi uubra ang police solution. The usual "huli at kulong" will not work here. That is why I do not buy the "bad middleman" narrative, parading them as the usual suspects, as such a solution conceals the real problems and culprits.

Except in one area: The elimination of flying and fixed checkpoints along the countryside-to-city food routes. Many of these have become mulcting stations by people who treat these food trucks as a buffet on wheels. Yung mga magbubuko na lang, ilan beses 'yan hihinto para mabukulan.

Traffic, tolls, and tong are price drivers. Relief from the first two is not instantly actionable. But the last one can be easily solved. Pati yung mga roadside smoke belching test na bumibiktima ng mga out-of-towners, baka pwedeng ihinto ang mga 'yan.