The Department of Justice (DoJ) should lodge a criminal complaint against rice cartel figures or against just even one of them in response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA) warning against manipulators in the grains trade which Mr. Duterte said are known to him, Sen. Cynthia Villar said yesterday.

In the SoNA, Mr. Duterte said “we also need to address the issue of artificial rice shortage. I now ask all the rice hoarders, cartels and their protectors, you know that I know who you are: stop messing with the people. I hate to… Power sometimes is not a good thing. But I hope I will not have to use it against you.”

Villar issued a stern warning on radio against the DoJ due to its inability to prosecute members of the rice cartel even after a Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food probe last February uncovered traders suspected of manipulating rice prices and supply.

The justice department has failed to file any case after the probe, according to Villar who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food.

“We’re aware that there are indeed rice cartels,” Villar said in the interview. “We are urging the Department of Justice and the Philippine Competition Commission to make an example of even just one cartel to show that we are going to implement the law.”

Villar said the filing of cases will be a deterrent to rice smuggling but the “ultimate solution would be developmental,” noting that they are trying to do this through rice tariffication and building what she called “rice schools.”

The lady senator added the Department of Finance has promised to allocate P10 billion a year to fund programs that would make Filipino farmers “very good, competitive and profitable.”

On Monday, Mr. Duterte warned traders against attempting to manipulate rice prices through hoarding and instructed intelligence agencies to unmask those engaged in economic sabotage.

The President also urged Congress through the SoNA to prioritize a proposed law that seeks to impose tariffs on rice in place of import quotas, saying this can bring down the price of the staple by as much as P7 per kilo and slowing inflation “significantly” as a result.

Villar echoed the sentiment of the President, saying rice smugglers should “stop messing with the people.”

The Philippines imports rice mainly from Vietnam and Thailand by up to one million tons of the grain each year.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) supported Mr. Duterte’s call for Congress to pass the rice tariffication bill.

The law amending Republic Act (RA) 8178, otherwise known as the Agricultural Tariffication Act” of 1996, seeks to stabilize rice prices and address artificial rice shortage.

“There is no time to waste. All of us must rally behind the administration’s reform agenda, most especially the rice tariffication bill which, if implemented, will make our agriculture sector competitive in the long-term,”

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said.

Pernia added once the rice tariffication bill, filed before the 17th Congress, is signed into law and fully implemented, the prices of rice will likely go down.

In NEDA’s preliminary estimate, headline inflation rate would be reduced by one percentage point if the domestic wholesale rice market reduces its price to the level of imported rice.

Pernia, likewise, lauded President Duterte’s 3rd SoNA which brought attention to some of the Philippines’ development agenda expressly laid out in the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022, the country’s socioeconomic development blueprint.

Among these are the Ease of Doing Business Law, the bill establishing the Coconut Farmers’ Trust Fund, the National Land Use Act, the comprehensive tax reform and the aim for a universal health care system.

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