Is that rice in your ‘balikbayan’ box?

WASHINGTON – Filipinos in the Washington metropolitan area are stuffing rice into care packages known as balikbayan boxes and shipping them to the Philippines where shortages have led to soaring prices and rationing, the Washington Post reported.

As international charities scramble to help nations hardest-hit by shortages and high prices of food, Washington-based immigrants from some countries including the Philippines and Haiti are providing their own version of food aid, the Post said Monday.

These blips on the global food shipment landscape, of course, are not going to lift poor nations out of crisis and many immigrants say they are sending more money if anything to help relatives deal with food costs, it said.

Sending rice to the Philippines is like sending coal to Newcastle and the National Federation of Filipino American Associations is encouraging immigrants to send money instead, noting that although rice is expensive in the Philippines, it is available.

Besides rice prices in the Washington area have shot up and a 25-pound of Thai jasmine rice preferred by Filipinos now sells at about $20 from $12.75 six weeks ago.

Even though government-subsidized rice may be available in the Philippines there are complaints it is of poor quality.

The Post quoted Christie Zerrudo as saying she was sending rice to her brother, a tricycle driver in Manila, because he told her the rice available locally tastes bad.

“It just breaks my heart. I said, ‘Don’t eat it,’” Zerrudo told the Post. “I told them, I’ll send you a bag of rice.”

Maila Mabolo also said her brothers complained to her that government rice, which is rationed and offered at about 20 cents per pound, gives them stomach ache.

“My brothers are going to the line for three hours, and they will get only three kilos. I’m not going to let my brothers struggle like that,” she said.

Forex, a company which specializes in shipping balikbayan boxes, estimates it has sent about 1,200 bags of rice to the Philippines each month for the past three months.

For Arnedo Valera, head of the Migrant Heritage Commission, sending rice is a political statement.

If Filipino customs agents see it, Valera explained, they will have yet more evidence that Filipino expatriates who sent home nearly $15 billion in 2006, are keeping the Philippines humming.