UniTeam senatorial candidate Herbert “Bistek” Bautista on Wednesday told reminded the government that the buffer stock supply for rice should be good for 90 days.

Bautista pointed this out after learning that the National Food Authority (NFA) is currently maintaining a buffer stock of rice that is only good for 15 days.

The former Quezon City mayor said he finds it unusual for those in charge of buffer food stock to keep a supply good for only 15 days instead of the normal 90 days.

“It puzzles me why our buffer is just 15 days when it comes to food,” said Bautista, in an interview with Power Radio 94.7 Davao.

“This is so we can be prepared and ready, not in panic over where to get food when the 15 days run out,” he said.

Bautista earlier asked the government to be proactive in preventing a shortage in the supply of basic goods, especially food, after the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) announced that a supply of basic items was likely to fall short of demand.

“We should not wait for the shortage to be staring us in the face before we act,” said Bautista.

Bautista made the call after think tank Japan Center for Economic Research (JCER) cut its 2022 growth forecast for the Philippines to just 6.9 percent amid threats of rising global commodity prices.

However, he rejected NEDA’s recommendation to ramp up importation as a solution to projected food shortages.

“Why is importation our knee-jerk reaction?...There should be first an honest-to-goodness inventory of production on the ground,” he said.

“We can’t know the real situation by just sitting behind our gilded desks,” Bautista stressed.