PIECEMEAL: Is the Arroyo administration under tremendous pressure to sign away our patrimony piecemeal? Or is it just playing a trick on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front?

I ask this, because Malacanang had refused to disclose the full text of an agreement that it was supposed to sign today with that armed band of secessionists bent on carving out a separate Bangsamoro state in the South.

(But the Supreme Court sitting en banc temporarily restrained Malacanang yesterday from signing the agreement.)

The Executive had refused to confide to co-equal branches of government the substantive details of the pact as well as the extent of Malaysian meddling (disguised as good offices) in the internal strife in Mindanao.

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TREASON: The government already gave Moros their own Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Having gotten that test finger, the secessionists and their foreign handlers are now demanding to be given the entire hand by enlarging the ARMM area.

At the rate Malacanang has been signing away Mindanao in bits and pieces, it might just surprise us one morning by surrendering to Moro rebels an entire arm packaged as “ancestral domain.”

Soon, the Bangsamoro would have all the elements of a state, including a defined territory under its governance, and succeed in seceding from the Republic.

There are cries of protest in Mindanao and elsewhere against the signing of the agreement without consultation, but it seems Malacanang prefers to listen to secessionists and their foreign patrons than to its law-abiding, but unarmed, citizens.

Who will stop what looks like treason about to be committed by the highest official of the land sworn to “preserve and defend its Constitution (and) execute its laws”?

Who will convince President Gloria Arroyo that appeasement will never work with terrorists, that we do not win peace by signing away the country piecemeal?

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ENERGY & AGGIE: With a Food & Fuel Crisis gripping the country, one would think the two busiest Cabinet departments would be Energy and Agriculture.

But a monitoring of media and a rereading of the State of the Nation Address of President Arroyo show virtual zero action on fuel/energy and, in contrast, a flurry of activities on food/agriculture.

The insatiable oil ogres are sapping motorists dry with extortionist pricing and the National Power Corp. mafia is busy raking in fat commissions that add to electricity rates -- while Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes busies himself instead with checking the gas pumps!

In the case of Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, at least we see him moving to neutralize rice hoarders, boost the harvest of farmers and improve delivery of farm and fishery products to markets -- and still find time to help alleviate the misery of calamity victims.

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INTERVENTION: Agriculture has a P32-billion share in the 2008 national budget of about P1.2 trillion, or some 26 percent of general appropriations.

It accounts for 35 percent of the labor force in the country and contributes around 19 percent of the gross domestic product, which is the sum of all goods and services produced in the country during the year.

Discussing the rice situation in her SONA, President Arroyo noted the steady drop in the retail price of the staple resulting from government intervention.

With rice subsidies expected to hit P20 billion this year, Agriculture and the National Food Authority have deployed enough stocks to pull down prices of commercial varieties to as low as P32 a kilo from their P40-P50 range last summer.

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PRICE DROP: Apart from selling at P18.25 per kilo to low-income families, the NFA has also unloaded well-milled commercial stock costing P25 and P35 a kilo for middle-income households. This has put pressure on private traders to lower prices of their fancy varieties.

The price drop bucked the traditional rise in prices during the three-month lean period starting July. To follow through, Yap directed the NFA to unload in phases 28 million more cavans (50-kilo bags) until end-December.

(Cheap rice is being sold in poorer communities with the help of local governments, the Social Welfare department and Church-based groups such as the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines-National Secretariat for Social Action.)

The President noted that local prices now are even lower than those in the world’s top rice  exporters, Thailand and Vietnam, where the grain sells for the equivalent of P56 and P67 a kilo.

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ENTREPRENEURS: Sixteen promising entrepreneurs were each given last Friday P100,000 capital grants by the Nacionalista Party under its centennial  “Pondo sa Sipag, Puhunan sa Tiyaga” program to recognize their hard work, resilience and excellence.

The grants were handed out by Senate President Manny Villar, NP president, in ceremonies at the historic Laurel mansion on Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City, which now serves as the NP headquarters.

The grantees were: Region 1 – Sarah Dabucon (SCUFYND food processing) and Margarita Allado (agricultural store); Region 2 – Albino Francisco (repair service shop), Calma Arcala (Cali’s mushroom farm), Albert Dulnuan (rattan seedling nursery), Elizabeth Africano (Franco’s café) and Solomon Maylem (farm); Region 3 – Pacifico de la Cruz (wild duck raising); Region 4 – Antonia Villanueva (Tonette’s footwear); Region 5 – Marianne Olano (Baycrafts Shoppe); Region 6 – Roland Madera (Babylan’s cococraft); Region 7 – Lucresia Saga (Aling Lucring’s sari-sari store); Region 12 –  Elizabeth Rafal (Sto. Niño food processing); Cordillera Administrative Region – Marie Saclag (Ayatu’s ethnic crafts) and Regina Madio (Praj’s gift shop); and Caraga – Ernesto and Alicia Paglinawan (corn coffee business).

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