By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

BUMPED into an old friend, the affable and efficient Manager Edilberto Libatique of the National Food Authority western Pangasinan branch during the coordination meeting for President Arroyo’ visit last week at the PNP provincial headquarters.

Before I could ask him about the report of the P18.25/kilo government rice “disappearing” from outlets at public markets,which has been aired shrilly the past weeks by a couple of broadcasters who didn’t seem to have the answer for it altogether, the manager was telling me the subsidized rice price has been pulled out and brought to “community-based outlets” in “poorest of the poor areas.”

“Community-based outlets”, according to him, are those Tindahan Natin outlets (TNOs), Tindahan sa Parokya and the ubiquitous NFA Rolling Stores scattered all over the province.

Ed said what the public can buy now at the poblacion public markets are the NFA’s imported rice, commercial grade varieties, available at their Bigasan sa Palengke at P25/kilogram. A customer is entitled to buy 5 kg at a time.

For those with more discriminating taste for the cereal, the so-called high-end varieties of government rice can also be bought at P35/kg.

Rice eaters, take your pick. What’s essential is, there’s rice available for all types of budget. The NFA is seeing to that.

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About the most harassed and fatigued Cabinet official these days, I guess, is Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, who traces roots in Dagupan, like Health Sec Pingcoy Duque. Food issues being at the forefront of national and provincial concerns, he has to have the answers to the President’s probing questions always at the tip of his fingertips – or his mouth – or he pays the price of a public scolding.

After the typhoons, it’s almost a spectacle seeing and hearing Yap exuding confidence (at least publicly) that the rice supply as projected by the DA won’t slump much and there’d be enough of the staple for the Pinoy table despite huge swathes of ricelands pounded to perdition by the recent howlers in Luzon and the Visayas.

It’s hard to believe but the way many officials in government – and not just Yap – trot out those figures to show things are A-Ok and all hunky-dory you’d think nothing can ever hurt the Filipino physically and psychologically.

To one, the glass is half-full; to the other it’s half-empty.

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Sto. Tomas, that quiet, little town presided over by the Villars, earned every bit of that honor of a Guinness record in the Longest Barbecue category.

Grilling its main product, the glutinous sweet corn, on February 10 this year in a long stretch from one end to the other of its main (and only) 3.8 kilometer road, the town vied for the world record of the event and got it with flying colors.

For that quest, the gritty Sto Tomas folk grilled a total of 93,540 ears of corn set on inter-connected fabricated grills, to erase the previous record of 1.4 kilometer barbecue put up by Monteviedo in Mexico.

Our kumare, Mayor Vivien O. Villar and hubby Undersecretary Antonio Villar, Jr of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group, together with their town officials and barangay residents showed real spunk and charm in attaining their dream to be in the world map. They all proved that in this highly competitive world, one is never too small to aspire for big things.

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Time will tell if the sangguniang panlalawigan decision – and Governor Amado Tutaan Espino, Jr.s’ as well – to, in a sense, “mortgage” Pangasinan’s unreleased Internal Revenue Allotments to the Land Bank of the Philippines from which it will borrow money for certain provincial development projects including typhoon damage rehabilitation, was a wise one.

Offhand, the province really has much to gain than Land Bank, the lender, under the loan arrangement. Land Bank assumes the burden of waiting for and collecting from government the value of the loan from the unreleased portion of the province’s IRA. As to how long that takes, as far as we understand the arrangement, it’s the bank’s look-out.

Meanwhile, the provincial government already has the money in its hands advanced by Landbank. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush, that sort of thing.

Just wondering if that practice or arrangement won’t in the end run the Landbank to the ground –when a hundred or so LGUs start availing, all at the same time, of its novel lending policy.

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We hear that the regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development has finally “validated” some 90 % of the list of probable recipients of G.I sheets among the thousands of victims of typhoon Cosme in the province. Well and good.

Now, the ball has turned around and it’s the Department of Public Works and Highways – from which the huge supply of G.I sheets will come – that’s running against time and under pressure to deliver the goods.

The supposed arrival of the delayed shipment of the roofing material, will be ..well, wahddaya know, last Sunday! The district offices of DPWH will be the distribution points, according to the most sought out Regional Director Fidel Ginez when we had a huddle with him last Friday at the Capitol during the presidential visit.

Here’s hoping the delivery is on target, for the sake of the hundreds more of our kabaleyans out there who have yet to taste that longed-for government assistance to cover their dewed or scorched heads.

DSWD, thru its regional director Margarita Sampang has gone out on a limb to say her agency will fast-track everything now and unload the goods to the towns by July 9 down to the last sheet.

Enter, Wonder Woman!