Quezon Representative Mark Enverga, the chairperson of the House committee on agriculture and food, believed that Senator Risa Hontiveros might be "misinformed" for claiming that the newly imposed price ceiling on rice is a "cure" even "worse than the disease."
In a radio interview on Sunday, Enverga refuted Hontiveros' assertion that the government's aid for expensive fertilizers was inadequate and the newly imposed price is a temporary solution that fails to address the underlying factors of the escalating costs of the staple grain.
"I think Senator Risa is also misinformed here because, in fact, the increase in their (farmers) budget for the rice banner program for 2023 is huge and the majority are fertilizer subsidies for 1.8 billion farmers. So I think that's included in that," Enverga said.
Malacanang on Friday announced the imposition of mandated price ceilings on rice in the country to ensure a reasonable price of rice amid the current surge in its retail prices in the Philippines, "which resulted in a considerable economic strain on Filipinos, particularly the underprivileged and marginalized."
Executive Order No. 39 mandated the price to P41 per kilo for regularly milled rice and P45 for well-milled rice. The directive will take effect on Tuesday.
Hontiveros deemed the executive branch's move as a "lazy job" and a "cure" that could be even worse than the disease.
Enverga, however, admitted that while the problem on the production side is relatively long-term, farmers will not be on the receiving end since the government has a few years to provide aid, such as types of machinery and subsidies that will alleviate their financial strain.
"We still have a few years to give this subsidy from the RCEF fund also like machineries (sic). Because the seeds are free for our farmers. The machinery is free, they also have a training component and then they have a subsidy of P5,000 per farmer to receive," he said.
According to the agriculture panel chair, the only thing lacking is the fertilizer component, which is subsidized in the rice banner program of the Department of Agriculture's budget.
Enverga stressed that global market prices influence the jack-up in the price of the staple grain, and it is not only the Philippines that bear the repercussions.
"In today's period where this is a problem for the whole world, the world market prices also drive the price. We did not create this problem," he said.