The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) on Friday passed a “half-rice” ordinance hoped to reduce in this rice-eating province staple food wastage which, in the national level, could cost P24 million daily or P8.4 billion a year. Bohol Provincial Ordinance No. 004-2014 “requires (those in the) foodservice industry” within the province to “include one-half cup of cooked rice in their menu.” Sponsored by Board Member Abeleon Damalerio who chairs the agriculture committee, the measure is also in support of both the local and national rice self-sufficiency programs. Gov. Edgar chatto has repeatedly urged the Boholanos to conserve food even if Bohol surpassed its 2012 achievement in rice production by a record 3.4-metric ton yield per hectare in 2013, which timely was declared by Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III as the National Year of the Rice. The ordinance requires restaurants, carenderias, eateries and the likes to “make one-half cup of cooked rice an optional serving size,” thereby giving a choice to customers who cannot consume a full cup or plate of rice. It asserts that there is an “empirical evidence” showing that the availability of half-rice serving will minimize rice waste in the foodservice industry.

The industry refers to “businesses, establishments, institutions and companies responsible for any meal prepared outside the home,” according to the measure which enforcement just awaits its implementing rules and regulations. These commercial food servers “include, but are not limited to, restaurants, cafeterias (in schools, offices and hospitals), catering operations, fastfood chains and any other similar formats.” But the half-rice legislation may turn out “half-cooked” when enforced. Board Member Brigido Imboy doubted if the local franchise holders of known fastfood chains “can be obliged to serve half of their food packing from Manila against their existing policy contracts.” The ordinance defines “half rice” as one-half cup of cooked rice at “roughly 79 grams” and pegs its price “at exactly half” of how much a full cup is sold. SP Assistant Floor Leader Tomas Abapo, Jr. said the ordinance has to take effect and be obeyed unless it counteracts or is suppressed by an existing national law. A fastfood outlet that serves a regular cup of rice on account of its franchise shall not refuse an additional or extra half-cup order which is required by law, hinted Abapo who is in legal profession and a law school dean, adding that a contract policy is not the law. A study by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) shows that every Filipino wastes an average of three (3) tablespoons or nine (9) grams of cooked rice daily, equivalent to 3.3 kilos per year.

There are about 1.2 million people in Bohol today.

With 94 million Filipinos consuming rice, which is the staple food of the Boholanos, the total waste amounts to 308,000 tons, which constitute 36% of the country's rice imports in 2011, according to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Rice food wastage takes the form of throwaways or leftovers. The IRRI valued the wastage at around P23 million a day or P8.4 billion annually, which huge amount and corresponding volume could feed, according to Sen. Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., 4.3 million people a year. Another estimate has valued the wastage at P9.6 billion every year which is sufficient to construct 24,000 classrooms. Marcos has authored Senate Bill 1863 or the Anti-Rice Waste Act of 2013 which carries penalties on hotels, restaurants, food chains and eateries that refuse to serve half-rice order. In the Lower House, BUTIL Farmers party-list Rep. Agapito Guanlao has his version called the “zero food wastage” bill which likewise requires the serving of rice in both full and half cups. The Bohol measure, which is the fourth ordinance passed this year by the provincial board under its presiding officer and Vice Gov. Concepcion Lim, has thus overtaken the passage of the two national legislative proposals. It proves that Bohol “is very sincere in its effort to explore viable means that would facilitate the attainment” of rice self-sufficiency of the nation, according to its co-sponsors who include Board Members Venzencio Arcamo and Elpidio Jala. The ordinance penalizes a violator P1,000 for the first offense; P2,500 and one month suspension of permit/license to operate, second offense; and P5,000 and permanent cancellation of the permit/license. A lady IRRI official bit her lip over the disgracing quantity of the precious cereal just wasted while the socio-economic condition of the country's poor and ordinary is aggravated by disasters that demand massive food relief, like last year's great Bohol earthquake and Yolanda, a Hitler of a typhoon. (Ven rebo Arigo)