Our favorite “pa-pogi” guy in government, Arthur Yap of the Department of Agriculture, is at it again. In the face of soaring prices of sugar, he directed the National Food Authority to make available 150,000 kilos to poor families through NFA’s “Tindahan Natin” outlets in Metro Manila.
The volume of 150,000 kilos translates into 150 tons of sugar. At an estimated nationwide consumption of 6,000 tons a day, the volume the NFA has been directed to inject into a market represents 2.5 percent of consumption. The volume will last about half an hour assuming people buy sugar round the clock during a 24-hour day.
(And, yes, we know that in doing the pencil-pushing exercise above we might be accused of intentional misrepresentation. The 150,000-kilo infusion is limited to Metro Manila, hence, we should not have used the nationwide consumption figure as the denominator. But we deliberately did so to show the silliness of Yap’s announcement given the obvious gap in demand and supply situation.)