Arroyo urges Filipinos to eat 'kamote'

CEBU CITY, Philippines – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo called on Filipino households to practice eating root crops like “kamote" as a substitute for rice. Inspired by the “Saksak" or “Sinanduloy" (a mix of rice and camote) campaign here, the President said it’s time for Filipinos living in urbanized communities to eat camote and other root crops to reduce the burden of the global rise in the price of rice. Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia said the provincial government adopted the concept of eating “sinanduloy" or “saksak" after the price of rice went up in the world market. The President said that during the war, when there was shortage of rice, her father (the late President Diosdado Macapagal) told his children to cook the "sinanduloy" or "saksak" or “kinisa" in Filipino. Mrs. Arroyo said a root crop or tuber like camote is so easy to propagate not only in farms but also in backyards, because it could be harvested in three months time. Garcia meanwhile said Cebu mayors are now trying their best to promote "saksak" in their towns. The President said the national government might adopt the “saksak" in its nationwide campaign to make the country less dependent on rice. She said that if the current rice situation continues, the country will most likely concentrate on producing more rice rather than importing it. In the short term, the Arroyo administration hopes to put food on the table of every Filipino through rice importation by the National Food Authority. The President said the government is expecting a 6.6 percent growth rate in rice production in the second quarter of 2008. But when asked if the government would reduce rice subsidy, the President said: “I don’t want to make any fearless forecast at this time." “It’s really very hard to say because as I said even the prognosis is debatable on whether prices will go down or not. Many analysts say so but we don’t know. Africa has not started buying in the world market, so they may suddenly come in and buy in a big way," Mrs Arroyo said. She assured the public that the government is doing its best to avert a cartel situation as she pledged to prosecute traders involved in rice cartel and rice hoarding. “My concern is to make sure that we have to prosecute the guilty and throw them in jail as much as we can. Anyway, whether it’s cartel behavior or not, we have no anti-trust law anyway, so whether they are cartel or independent operators, we have to go against them," she said. - OPS/GMANews.TV