BBM, hoarders in test of wills over price cap

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. left yesterday for Indonesia, but not before taking a potshot at smugglers and hoarders over the spiraling price of rice that necessitated his issuance of a price cap on the staple grain.

Marcos in his departure speech said that even as he attends the 43rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit, controlling the rice price surge will be top of mind.

Early in his presidency, Marcos said he would work to bring down the price of rice to P20 a kilo, half of the P41 to P45 per kilo price ceiling he imposed via Executive Order 39, signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, last Thursday.

The President was adamant that there is no valid reason rice should be selling for upwards of P50 per kilo, considering that data from the Department of Agriculture showed that with the coming rice harvest and imports, there'll be enough rice buffer stocks to last the year.

"Based on our studies, the only reason for this is that there are smugglers and hoarders," he said in Filipino.  The price cap — P41 per kilo for regular-milled rice and P45/kilo for the well-milled variety — will be implemented starting today, 5 September.

Rice retailers across the nation were one in saying that they could not possibly sell at below their purchase price despite the government's threat to penalize violators of EO 39.

Monitoring teams from the DA and the trade, local government and justice departments, along with those from local government units, will go around wet markets and supermarkets to ensure compliance with the price cap.

Temporary measure

Earlier, Marcos tried to assure traders and the public that the price ceiling would be temporary while waiting for local farmers to harvest their palay.

"I need to explain that this is only temporary. It won't last long. We are harvesting rice, we are harvesting rice here in the Philippines, [until] the season is over," he stressed.

"And so when the time comes, we'll also have imported rice. It will come in at the same time [as the local harvest]. We will take it to the market, we will let rice retailers cap their own prices," he added.

The President said he will work with ASEAN leaders during the summit to address the various challenges facing the region, including the territorial irritants in the South China Sea (see related story).

As the "epicenter of growth" in Asia, ASEAN-member countries can play a big role in ensuring food security, calling for climate justice, protecting migrant workers, and fully tapping the potential of digital economies.

"We will foster cooperation with these countries in areas such as trade and investment, climate action, food security, clean energy, and maritime cooperation," Marcos said, before boarding his plane with First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos.

Marcos said he will also take part in the ASEAN Plus 3 and East Asia summits where he will discuss developments in the South China Sea, the situation in Myanmar, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Welcomed

"ASEAN has always been closely intertwined with Philippine foreign policy," the President said. "My administration will continue to ensure that our constructive engagements with ASEAN, our dialogue partners, and stakeholders will serve our national interest and the wellbeing of the Filipino people."

The ASEAN Summit is the second to be held in Indonesia this year after the one held in Labuan Bajo last May.

House lawmakers welcomed the rice price ceiling set to be enforced today but expressed reservations, including making it more "flexible" based on prevailing regional market conditions.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said, "The situation will vary per region, so a national rice price ceiling should be made more responsive to local supply-demand dynamics."

Salceda emphasized that increasing domestic supply and diversifying importation sources like Pakistan and the United States should be the long-term solution.

"We've seen this crisis before. We know how to deal with it. It mostly involves signaling to our world partners that we will not over-import so that they don't anticipate and drive prices up," Salceda said.

Independent opposition lawmaker Edcel Lagman said that Marcos should have imposed the rice price cap when the commodity was being sold at P50 to P60 per kilo.

Speaker Martin Romualdez on Monday declared that P2 billion sourced from this year's budget will be earmarked to aid rice retailers who may be affected by the price cap.

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