The retail price of rice will gradually drop instead of going up with the lifting of the price cap by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. This was the prediction offered by the Department of Agriculture on Thursday.

The lifting of the price cap, according to DA's Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, will also prevent another spike in rice prices.

Panganiban said if not for the lifting of the price cap, rice prices will continue to jump.

The Grains Retailers Confederation of the Philippines Inc., on the other hand, said that while they support the President's move, the DA should guard against price manipulators.

"It's a right move to lift the price cap. Ket the market forces be the basis on how the prices will be on the market. Since its harvest time po, malamang pababa ang prices ng bigas," GRECON spokesperson Orlando Manuntag said.

"If manatili ang price cap, we will not know what's really happening sa mercado. I suggest dapat bantayan ng DA ang galaw, especially the supply and demand side po," he added.

The Philippine Statistics Authority earlier declared that the spike in rice prices contributed greatly to the country's inflation rate, placed at 6.1 percent in September 2023.

Panganiban said rice prices are also expected to go down as the harvest season has already arrived.