Lawmakers will hold more public hearings, inquiries, and consultations with agriculture and food stakeholders to avert sudden unreasonable hikes in prices of basic staples, a House leader said.
“Upon the instruction of our Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and in line with the desire of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to make food products affordable, we will observe and address food inflation,” Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga said in a statement.
In a separate interview with Manila Standard, Enverga said the House Committee on Agriculture and Food which he heads will exercise its oversight functions.
“Expect that the Committee will proactively monitor current and forecasted prices of agricultural commodities. We intend to engage the Department of Agriculture and expect to be apprised on our current supply situation of various basic agricultural commodities from time to time,” he said.
“This will enable us to ensure that the agricultural commodities deemed to rise in prices receive the rightful, proper and timely government intervention. Our focus is to prioritize our own production capabilities,” Enverga added.
Earlier, the House committee conducted a four-month inquiry into the sudden increase in the price of onions, which skyrocketed to as much as P800 a kilo.
The hearings resulted in a drastic drop in onion prices from P700 to P160 per kilo.
Another lawmaker, Manila Rep. Joel Chua, suggested allowing the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card of the government’s Food Stamp Program (FSP) to be usable at point-of-sale at supermarkets, grocery stores, and drugstores with electronic card readers.
Chua said there are not enough government-run Kadiwa stores and the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) rolling stores to serve a large number of beneficiaries and adapt to future scaling up, considering that next year’s target would be 300,000 households.
“Instead of spending to build more of these government stores, it is much less costly to accredit and involve already established supermarkets, groceries, and drugstores for EBT rollout,” he said.
He said EBT cards must be configured to be as portable as debit purchase cards and usable at electronic and Internet-connected retail outlets.
A flagship program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the FSP aims to decrease the incidence of involuntary hunger by improving the availability and accessibility of nutritious food for less fortunate households while helping address nutritional concerns.
It provides cash-based assistance in the form of EBT cards, loaded with P3,000 food credits. Fifty percent of the amount is allotted for carbohydrate-rich food, 30 percent for protein, and 20 percent for fruits and vegetables.
It is a pilot program intended for 3,000 families in five areas – Tondo, Manila; Dapa, Siargao; San Mariano, Isabela; Garchitorena, Camarines Sur; and Parang, Maguindanao.
At the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City, DSWD Undersecretary Edu Punay said the “Walang Gutom 2027” pilot run for the initial 3,000 FSP beneficiaries will end in May 2024.
After a review in June, the DSWD will fully roll out the program in July.
The pilot is funded by a US$3 million (approximately P163 million) grant from the Asian Development Bank.