Gone through the roof Rice imports, thus far, have failed to stabilize prices of the main staple which remained on an uptrend for eight months. A store owner shows tag prices of as much as P80 per kilo at the Kamuning Public Market in Quezon City against government-set P27 per kilo. Analy Labor The government is zeroing in on rice traders as being the cause of the spike in local rice prices, particularly in Zamboanga City which had to declare a state of calamity to impose controls on the market cost of the grain which hit more than P80 per kilo.

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary Ruth Castelo said the agency had found a huge disparity in the farm gate and retail prices of rice pointing to huge markups among middlemen.

Castelo said the DTI is, at the moment, resorting to persuasion for traders to reduce their huge margin.

“Agriculture products have suggested retail prices and we are aware of the difference between the retail and farmgate prices. So we are trying to identify the traders and find out who are they so we can request that they reduce their huge markups,” Castelo said.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said President Rodrigo Duterte will order warehouses of rice hoarders to be forcibly opened if national security is at stake.

Roque said Mr. Duterte received information on the identities and whereabouts of rice hoarders and threatened to break open their warehouses.

“We warn rice hoarders that the President will use the full force of the law in forcing open warehouses where these hoarded rice may be found,” Roque said.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III refused to pin the blame on government agencies for the rice price surge as he suggested to the government to increase purchases from Filipino farmers as a long-term solution to the problem on the upsurge in rice prices.

Sotto said he would rather check on improving the policies instead of pointing fingers to others as the cause of the crisis.

“It’s difficult to accuse, I’d rather go for changing the policy,” Sotto said.

He added the proposal to abolish National Food Authority (NFA), which is also the proposal of some of his colleagues, should be studied.

He said, nonetheless, Zamboanga City’s declaration of a state of calamity was the right thing to do to alleviate the burden of the crisis to ordinary people.

According to Sotto, the government will be hitting two birds in one stone by helping uplift the lives of Filipino farmers and address the rice problem at the same time by buying 50 percent of the total output of Filipino farmers at a very good rate.

“It’s like subsidy… if we do that, then we solve this issue,” Sotto said.

Sotto called for the easing of NFA requirements on farmers in selling their rice harvests to the agency.

Roque agreed with Sotto on the move of the Zamboanga City government as he said that imposing price controls can only be done after the declaration of a state of national calamity.

“There are actions being taken [to address high prices] and there are decisions already taken and it will not be long before I announce these government steps at the regular press briefing,” Roque said.

Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar said the situation has started to ease after the arrival of shipments of commercial rice from Isabela province and India.

She added despite the declaration of state of calamity, the situation had improved.

To augment grains supply to the city, some 180,000 sacks of government-subsidized rice will also arrive this weekend, NFA spokesman Rex Estoperez said.

Senate Minority Floor Leader Franklin Drilon said that heads should roll at the NFA following the shortage of rice supply in the country that triggered high prices in the country’s primary staple.

Sen. Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate agriculture committee, also blamed NFA officials for the rising prices of rice.

Calls for the ouster of NFA executives are mounting amid the ongoing rice problem which is at its most critical in Zamboanga City.

The Zamboanga City Council declared a state of calamity following more than two weeks of rice shortage and the unabated increase in rice prices in the public market.

Local government officials hope that with the declaration, they can tap P15 million in calamity fund to purchase additional rice for distribution at a lower price.

“We will be able to impose price ceiling on rice in the city considering the fact that there are certain sectors that are taking advantage of the rice shortage,” said Vice Mayor Cesar S. Iturralde who chairs the council.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol has blamed the shortage of commercial rice supply in the city to the halt to the entry of “smuggled” rice in Mindanao.

“We see the absence of the usual imported smuggled rice in the markets of Zambasulta (Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi) areas. This has resulted in a (rice) shortage in Zamboanga (City),” Piñol said.

“It has been proven once again that it is wrong to rely on imported rice because, historically, the Zambasulta areas have been dependent on smuggled rice and we all know it,” he said.

Despite the shortage, Piñol said the government will not tolerate rice smuggling, describing it as “an unwanted solution” to the problem.

“Funny, that we have to admit it that the successful campaign against rice smuggling was one reason behind the shortage of rice supply in Zamboanga City,” he said.

Rice shortage in a particular locality can be averted if the LGU have their own food security programs, the DA chief added.