Senate President Manuel Villar, Jr. is blaming the Palace for its lack of cooperation in the investigation of the fertilizer scam in 2004 amounting to P720-million or $18-million fund intended for the agricultural sector.

Should this have been investigated further; this could have helped to reduce the crisis on food that the country currently faces. The huge money spent was never used to its real intentions.

The fund that was intended to buy fertilizers was reportedly misused in purchasing other chemicals that were overpriced and were not really a necessity. The Senate inquiry was put to waste as the witness, former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante, who knew what went wrong in the purchasing already went into hiding and no where to be found. This was indeed a hopeless case.

To curb the ongoing crises in some regions of the country, Sen. Villar proposed immediate means to sustain the food supply that the Philippines has for the moment.

He is urging the immediate release of the calamity fund for local governments to make sure that food supplies in the provinces will never run out. Building of more irrigation systems and farm-to-market roads must be put in place in establishing better mechanisms in growing crops.

Although infrastructure is a necessity to modernize locations in rural areas, one probable miscalculation of the government is the conversion of most farms into residential and commercial destinations. Farmers, because of this trend, are disheartened to look for lands to till and lack of support from the government disables them to produce more crops for the country.

Not only that, the government’s too much reliance on imports from other countries is killing domestic production. Many farmers have already shifted to other jobs that will give them better compensation.

Climate change is also one reason. The number of typhoons, landslides and floods that savaged many farms contributed to the lack of supply of basic commodities. The country really needs to counter the detrimental effects of changing weather conditions.

Just like in other countries in Asia, the Philippines needs to prepare for better ways of combating food crisis. The Arroyo government should take extra effort to solve this problem before it is too late. Hungry Filipinos can not think well if their empty stomachs will remain empty for a long period. This is a reality that might be contributory in endangering the peace and order situation in the country.