President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the unimpeded importation of rice to counter inflation, the Palace said Thursday, following a “fierce” debate between two Cabinet secretaries.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte has lifted the restrictions on rice imports to allow the smooth flow of the staple into markets.
Roque did not say who engaged in the debate, but it was apparent that Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, had won out after he illustrated with graphs that food was primarily responsible for the increased rate of inflation in September.
“The President… wants to flood the market with rice so that even if the price of crude and other oil prices should go up still further, the people will have access to affordable rice,” Roque said.
The Palace expects giant local companies like San Miguel Corp. to be able to import rice.
“This increase in the supply of rice will result in an overall lowering of prices,” said Roque.
Open importation means anyone who can afford to pay its tariff will be allowed to import rice.
“With the President’s directive, the NFA [National Food Authority] no longer has any say on how much should be imported,” he said.
Roque said a “principled and fierce” discussion preceded the President’s decision.
“It was a very hot issue. It was very animated, and we were one of three who had very strong views about the need of controlling inflation through increasing the supply of rice,” Roque said.
He, however, did not confirm whether the heated argument was with Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, who is also chairman of the NFA.
Piñol has expressed concern that unimpeded rice imports will hurt local farmers, whose products will not be able to compete with cheap rice from abroad.
On Friday, the Philippine Statistics Authority announced that inflation rose to 6.7 percent in September, soaring to a new 9-year high.
The PSA said the rise was caused by heavily-weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages.
Also on Tuesday, Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña said two of three ships loaded with smuggled rice worth P23 million that went missing from the Port of Zamboanga were owned by Bongao, Tawi-Tawi Mayor Limuel Que.
Personnel from the Coast Guard, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Intelligence Service, Armed Forces of the Philippines intercepted the three vessels containing 23,015 sacks of smuggled rice.
Lapeña has already informed the secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government following the result of their investigation into the missing smuggled rice at the Port of Zamboanga.
Lapeña has filed administrative charges against the four Customs officials who were suspended over the missing smuggled rice.
Charged for neglect of duty and grave misconduct were Customs Port of Zamboanga District Collector Lyceo Martinez, BOC district commander police Lt. Filomeno Salazar,; Customs Operations Officer and acting chief of the Port Operations Division Vicente Eduardo Torres; and Special Agent I Oscar Farin. With Vito Barcelo
