The chairperson of the senate committee on agriculture just brushed the issue off saying she can live without onions. This is the same old woman who just encouraged people to reduce their consumption on rice when its price soared intolerably high.
Such people have no sympathy for other people, and that is why her statements should be well remembered and everything should be done so that in the next elections she and her party get as few votes as possible. However, I hope that people will still learn from everything and realize how important self-sufficiency is, so even though it is unrealistic to expect that anyone can be 100% self-sufficient, anyone who has a little land can produce vegetables such as onions, potatoes, lettuce, carrots and parsley and many other cultures that do not require any special knowledge or too much effort.
Oh boy, I assure you
people remember everything, but slap them with $$$ and suddenly they'll forget everything. That is why the Philippines is fucked. The current chairperson of the Seneate Committee on Agriculture is a businesswoman whose ventures focus mainly on real estate and housing/subdivisions. There was even a comment from her that farmlands can easily be converted into subdivisions, and the sellers of those farmlands can buy land that is cheaper somewhere else and then plant crops. You see, the government here is like a legal mafia that plans to rape the resources of this country. Even if you have competent people at your disposal, if these people are your bosses, you will not have a voice and your expertise will be a waste.
There are tons of comments from the agriculture secretary that are just foul from an agriculture perspective. She treats everything as a business, and agriculture to her is nothing but a way to make money. She doesn't even know how to plant crops and that there are certain regions that can only grow a certain crop, and that it varies depending on the place.
I also think the prices of goods and services are somewhat increased during any festive season, perhaps due to the increased level of demand.
Except that we have been in this situation for months. The onion bulb situation has been going on for 3 months, whereas the rice import issue has been going on for years. Just imagine being one of the largest producers and exporters of rice for decades and suddenly, you fall off and has been overtaken by the likes of Vietnam and Thailand which has significantly lower fertile lands good for rice planting compared to you.