Believe it or not.

[Mike J]

1 hour ago, Tommy T. said:

Just to confirm some previous posts. Yesterday, L told me that there were no onions available in any stores she visited yesterday or the day before. We still have one yellow and 4 red onions left.... I will be lost not being able to use onions in my cooking!S**t!!

Made spaghetti sauce the other night.

Wife  - only use 1/2 the white onion.

Me -  there is only 1/2 of it left already. 

Wife - you can use 1/2 of the 1/2 save the rest.

[hk blues]

19 minutes ago, Mike J said:

Made spaghetti sauce the other night.

Wife  - only use 1/2 the white onion.

Me -  there is only 1/2 of it left already. 

Wife - you can use 1/2 of the 1/2 save the rest.

 

She's not wrong though! 

[fillipino_wannabe]

12 hours ago, JJReyes said:

You are correct.  The system is still sharecropper with the landowner residing in the city and someone else tills the land or harvest coconuts.  There is very little interest in investing for the future because the potential revenue stream is low.  Agrarian reform limits the size of land you can own that is planted to rice, sugar and coconut.  The idea was to force large landowners to sell their plantations to tenants.  Today's agriculture requires mechanization due to the cost of labor.  The cost of equipment is prohibitive for small farmers.  

To be fair they are fairly well mechanized in most of central Luzon, most farms have irrigation and they rent the rice harvesters for 5k per hectare. Main issue is that their farms are normally 1-2 hectares and like you said they're not allowed to own more than 5 hectares. Even farms in the US wouldn't be able to make money growing low value crops like rice or wheat if their farm was so small.

Issue with onions is that they're nearly all grown in central Luzon and you can't grow them in the rainy season. The DA built huge cold storage facilities but the farmers don't have the capital to store onions for 3-6 months so traders buy them and store them instead. Then the government decided they didn't want to import many/any late last year which clearly was a mistake so now they blame the 'greedy traders' for 'hoarding' (when they literally have to either be 'hoarded' or imported if you want any supply left after the summer) instead of taking the blame themselves.

Edited January 13, 2023 by fillipino_wannabe

[Possum]

https://www.philstar.com/nation/2023/01/15/2237762/pal-crew-caught-40-kilos-onions-fruits-

 

Onion situation is getting dire. PAL crew smuggling now.

[Freebie]

https://www.philstar.com/nation/2023/01/15/2237762/pal-crew-caught-40-kilos-onions-fruits-

 

This country can produce some sad, plain wrong  moments... as in the above. PAL crew bring in a few onions from an overseas trip. Caught, fined and will probably  now be fired.

Big time smugglers ( the police, army congress , senators all know who they are ) get away scot free.

 

If there were onions in the country the PAL staff wouldnt have to try to smuggle in a few.. which most flight crew have been doing for past few weeks anyways.