Quinta comm’s ultimate goal: P20/kilo rice

MANILA, Philippines — The head of the lead committee in the House of Representatives’ quinta committee yesterday revealed that their ultimate goal is to substantially lower the prices of rice to about P20 per kilo.

“We will chart a path to P20 per kilogram rice,” ways and means committee chairman Rep. Joey Salceda said.

He vowed this would be among the “four tangible goals” that the five-panel special committee will try to achieve as lawmakers investigate reports of rice smuggling, among many others.

The three other objectives he mentioned were bringing local livestock and poultry prices to “regionally competitive levels,” reducing agricultural production losses from 30 to 15 percent and increasing the annual gross value added for merchants or the producers’ net income.

Salceda made this disclosure following reports of low inflation figures last September, which he credited to massive disinflation in fruits and vegetables and a slight reduction in prices of fish.

The same thing was likewise true for sugar inflation which, according to Salceda, was usually “in the mid-20s over the past months,” but is now in the “negative, indicating that prices may be normalizing.”

Speaker Martin Romualdez last week vowed that the House would continue helping President Marcos in ensuring that food products are accessible and affordable after the Philippine Statistics Authority reported a 1.9 percent inflation from 3.3 percent in August and 4.4 percent in July.

The September inflation rate, according to the government, was the lowest in four years.

“The intervention measures taken by the government under the leadership of President Marcos Jr. are now yielding positive results,” Romualdez said.

He specifically cited the President’s decision to drastically cut the rice import tariff from 35 percent to 15 percent and the direct sale of rice to the public through Kadiwa stores.

“These twin steps have significantly reduced the retail price of rice, from above P50-P60 per kilo to P40-P42 per kilo, or by at least 20 percent,” the Speaker added.