HOUSE Ways and Means Chair Joey Sarte Salceda, one of the five chairs of the Murang Pagkain Supercommittee which convened yesterday, says that the aim of the five-committee panel is to “bring rice prices as close as possible to the President’s aspiration of P20 per kilo.”
“We will try to push the envelope as close to that as possible. What I can tell you is that it looks like there is a path to P30 per kilo,” Salceda said.
Salceda explained that the superpanel aims to bring down the prices of rice, which account for as much as 22 percent of total expenditures by poor households, and food in general, which takes up as much as 54 percent of total spending by low-income families.
“A big part of that is cutting down excessive middleman and cartel profits. Landed price of imports – including movements in world prices and the tariff reduction implemented last July – has declined by around 24.9 percent year on year. But consumer retail prices are up 9.0 percent over the same period. It’s puzzling and an unmistakable sign of shenanigans in the rice trade sector,” Salceda said.
“That’s why we are looking into rice price manipulation over the past ten or so years, starting with the rice price spike in 2012-2013, up to the price manipulation in 2016-2018, to learn from what happened, and to see whether the same network of smugglers and cartels are still in the game,” Salceda added.
“Kailangan may masampolan na profiteers, hoarders, smugglers and cartelists and regulatory patrons in both 2016-19 rice price spikes and the 2024 stubborn high prices despite tariff reduction from 35% to 15% and fall in 14% fall in global rice price.”
“We have enough laws already – the key is to enforce them- catch them, prosecute them and punish them.”
“Ginawa na ng Pangulo ang lahat ng policy options. Landed cost of Thailand rice is just 35.52 pesos per kilo by now. That means, industrial users are already benefiting from those prices. We are headed close to P30 per kilo. Ang tanong, saan napupunta ang benepisyo ng bagsak taripa. And how can we cut those excessive profits.”
“Isa pa, farmgate price in Central Luzon is now just P20.02. Assuming milling yields 65 percent of that, milled rice should come out to P30.08 per kilo. Even if you assume profits of 20 percent, prices should be at P37 per kilo. Something is really wrong.”
“Add to that, rice imports have already swelled to 4.1 million metric tonnes, an excess of 200,000 MT from the projected import needs of the country this year. I suspect that there is already speculation going on, especially since traders know that the tariff reduction is not forever.”
“By Christmas, we will have initial recommendations for the President. Not yet the Committee Report, but we hope something that PBBM can use to crack down on price abuse. Pamasko man lang sa taumbayan,” Salceda said.
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