Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin "Benhur" Abalos on Tuesday, made the rounds at Mega-Q-Mart along with Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte to inspect rice stalls and retailers if they are adhering to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s Executive Order 39.

Abalos said arrests will not take effect yet, for retailers selling rice beyond what is prescribed under EO 39, which is  P41 per kilo for regular-milled rice and P45 per for well-milled rice.

"Our target really here are the rice cartels. They are the ones causing the high cost of rice,'' Abalos said.

He added that the government will run after cartels that are manipulating the prices of prime commodities like rice.

The DILG chief also appealed to rice retailers and dealers to adhere to the government's rice price ceiling to ease the financial burden of the public.

Rice stall owners, on the other hand, complained that they will surely have financial losses if they follow the rice price cap imposed by the government.

"We bought rice at high costs, if we make the computation based on the government's price cap, we will surely incur heavy losses,'' one of the rice stall owners said.

Others said they are contemplating on closing their stalls until the price of regular and well-milled rice stabilizes.

Not feasible

"We loaned our capital with interest and it is not economically feasible if we sell them (rice at P41 to P45 per kilo),'' one of them said.

When this was relayed to Abalos, the DILG chief told the retailers that the government would provide compensation to help them reduce the prices of their rice.

Abalos told rice retailers to bear with the inconvenience, stating that the rice price cap is only "temporary" and not permanent.

With the rice price cap in effect, Abalos noted that the government is in the midst of making the necessary computation on how much aid should be provided to the rice dealers and retailers, adding that there is no time table yet on how long the lower cost of rice will last.

In the meantime, Abalos noted that the DILG will continue to conduct a massive information drive to make the rice dealers and retailers aware of the rice price cap that they should follow starting 5 September.

However, Abalos warned that the government will have no choice but to impose penalties and fines should rogue traders remain stubborn and fail to follow the rice price ceiling stated in EO 39.

Earlier, the DILG warned that violators of the rice price ceiling stand to face one year imprisonment but not more than 10 years jail term and pay penalties ranging from P5,000 to as much as P1 million upon the court's discretion.

Individuals or groups involved in the illegal price manipulation of prime commodities face jail terms not lower than five years and not more than 15 years and pay penalties of at least P5,000 up to P2 million.