Binay wants rice cartels, smugglers busted

Makati Mayor Abby Binay on Tuesday stressed that the national government should take a more aggressive steps to catch and prosecute those involved in rice cartels and smuggling in the country.

In a radio interview, Binay — who is also gunning for a Senate seat — said that the full force of the law should be imposed and perpetrators put behind bars to show government’s determination to stop price manipulation.

“We have so many laws when it comes to cartel, profiteering, but why is it that no one is in jail? Even smugglers, when they are apprehended, they are not presented. They are just saying that they would be blacklisted, but the question is, was there someone that have been already jailed or prosecuted?” Binay said.

“If the government cannot show how serious it is in enforcing the law, rice cartels or syndicates will continue to brazenly manipulate and control rice prices,” she added.

The mayor also welcomed the declaration of a national food security emergency to help address the surge in retail prices of rice. However, she stressed that it would offer only temporary relief if middlemen were not eliminated altogether.

“Rice prices would go down if the government directly buys rice products from local farmers, without going through middlemen,” Binay said.

Earlier, reports said that the proposed declaration of a national food security emergency would enable the National Food Authority to buy rice stocks from local farmers and sell them at a lower price.

“The government should buy the harvest of the farmers to do away with the middleman,” said the mayor.

Last year, the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act was signed into law by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. It imposes stiffer penalties against smugglers and hoarders of agricultural food products, including cartels.

Violators of the law face a fine five times the value of smuggled or hoarded agricultural or fishery products, and life imprisonment if proven guilty.