CEBU, Philippines — As the national government continue to provide financial assistance to affected micro rice retailers, House of Representatives Minority Leader and 4Ps party-list’s Rep. Marcelino “Nonoy” Libanan said the administration should continue imposing the rice price caps that is currently being implemented and even expand the cash aid to rice traders, to keep the scheme sustainable.
In a statement, he urged the government “to do everything it can to insulate consumers, especially low-income households, from precipitous and excessive increases in rice prices.”
“The government should keep the caps on rice costs as long as these are needed to safeguard consumers against price shocks and counteract potential illegal acts of price manipulation, profiteering and hoarding,” he said.
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. imposed last Aug. 31 a cap on rice prices to suppress further increases that could make the staple food out of reach of poorer households.
Under Executive Order No. 39, the price ceiling for regular milled rice is P41 per kilogram, while that for well-milled rice is P45 per kilogram. It, however, remains not fully implemented.
In Central Visayas, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-7 already released Php 3.6 million as cash aid to 241 micro rice retailers affected by the price cap. Each of them received P15,000 cash assistance during simultaneous payouts in the four provinces of the region the other day.
Of the 241 recipients, 65 were from Bohol; Cebu, 60; Negros Oriental, 76; and Siquijor, 40. They were part of the 325 beneficiaries identified in the region, as 84 already got theirs during the first payout last week.
The Department of Trade and Industry certified them as micro rice retailers negatively impacted by EO 39, while the Department of the Interior Local Government arranged the payout venues.
This convergence of the government agencies was in response to EO 39 so the national government can successfully implement the distribution of the cash assistance for micro rice retailers.
Meanwhile, Libanan warned that the upward pressure on global rice costs “could expose rice-consuming countries such as the Philippines to international commodity opportunists out to exploit price swings to make money.”
“In fact, we are also worried that foreign state actors might take advantage of the situation and try to artificially affect global markets to undermine rice-importing countries and their governments,” he said.
Asian rice prices had begun rising after India, the world’s biggest rice supplier, suddenly banned exports of non-basmati white rice in July to prioritize its own people’s consumption amid harsh weather conditions that affected the amount of harvests.
The ban has since squeezed Asian rice supplies, as Thailand and Vietnam, respectively the world’s second and third biggest exporters of the staple grain, struggle to fill the void created by the abrupt loss of shipments from India. — (FREEMAN)