Promise fulfilled?

SKETCHES

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

Heeding the call of the Commission on Elections, the government announced yesterday that it would put off till after election day the full rollout of the P20-a-kilo rice program.

But the pilot launch of the heavily subsidized rice pushed through yesterday in Cebu City, with Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. trumpeting: "Today, Labor Day, we fulfill a promise made three years ago by President Bongbong Marcos to the Filipino people: to bring down the price of rice to P20 a per kilo. That promise is now a reality — benteng bigas meron na!"

There you have it: the 2022 campaign spiel was no mere "aspiration," as administration officials previously said while rice prices were skyrocketing, but a "promise," as Filipinos correctly understood from the get-go.

It's intellectual dishonesty, however, to present the subsidized rice as a fulfillment of the "Babangon Muli" movement's campaign promise.

If Tiu Laurel keeps issuing these misleading statements, by the time he leaves government, his credibility would be below zero.

The campaign promise referred to market-dictated regular retail prices, not rice available only to the very poor and disadvantaged sectors and heavily subsidized by our taxes. Even the comprehension-challenged know this.

In the first place, that campaign promise was a shot at the moon, which agriculture officials past and present (except President Marcos when he appointed himself concurrent agriculture secretary) said was not attainable under current conditions.