By Reni M. Valenzuela
We don’t need onion like we need oxygen without which we can’t survive.
Other than some screwy logic and the argument that, “the government has no option but to import onions,” President Bongbong Marcos must have some real legitimate reasons why he finally approved the Department of Agriculture’s plan/proposal to import 5,775 metric tons of onion.
Otherwise, it might be construed that the government considers onion to be equally important as the air we breathe. My wife has discovered a new art of cooking good dishes without using onions. Just a bit of creativity, patience and momentary “sacrifice” (not importation) is what we need during this time of “onion shortage” in the country. It’s good that we only have shortage of onion and other food staples, but not shortage of sensible people in the government. And that I desperately want to believe.
The harvest isn’t too far for our farm producers to flood again our local market with onions. After this July’s harvest, it is expected as predicted that we will start having more than enough onions (hopefully so) to bring their prices back to normal.
Hence, why resort to folly which folly could well put our farmers’ interests at needless risks and at a great disadvantage, not to mention the other varied repercussions it may create which would be detrimental not only to our agriculture sector but also to the nation as a whole? What forced the government to do it or what is forcing some agriculture officials to convince the President to approve the importation?
Why not instead use the money to help Filipino farmers develop their capability to produce, technologically and financially, and by innovative, equitable ways of marketing their harvests at price levels that would make them happy, develop our agriculture industry and ultimately solve the country’s food crisis?
Could there be something amiss behind the government’s move to import onions? We sorely lack onions at this juncture, admittedly, but not alligators, vultures and wolves in the government. And the President must have been aware of it as much as he should have realized by now that he needs to appoint a fresh, new face as a permanent Secretary of Agriculture the soonest possible time.
Not in his time.
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