House Speaker Martin Romualdez issued a stern warning to profiteers, smugglers, and hoarders, vowing that Congress would take aggressive steps to stabilize food prices and ensure affordable basic goods for Filipinos.
The Speaker declared food security as a top priority and pledged that the House of Representatives would uphold its duty to protect the people.
He emphasized the government’s efforts to address high food prices, citing recent tariff cuts on imported rice and the need to investigate why costs remain elevated despite sufficient supply.
“The government is doing everything. You know, we just cut the tariff for imported rice, from 35 to 15 percent. A lot of supplies are stored there but why is the price still high?” Romualdez told reporters on Monday.
“That is what we are trying to ferret out. Why is it until now the price of rice has yet to go down?” he added.
He assured that the government is already poised to take decisive action.
Romualdez said the Quinta Committee, tasked to bring down food prices, is now working closely with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Bureau of Customs (BOC), and Department of Agriculture (DA) to conduct inspections of warehouses suspected of hoarding rice and other staples.
“To the profiteers, unscrupulous traders and wholesalers, we are going after you. The House will go after you. We will not allow this abuse to happen, especially this Christmas season,” he said.
Meanwhile, Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, chair of the House of Representatives committee on ways and means, said his office received reports that imported well-milled rice is being labeled as premium rice and sold at P70 per kilo in supermarkets.
“That means they earn as much as P30 pesos per kilo,” he noted.
Salceda heads the Congressional “super committee” known as the Quinta Comm, which brings together five committees—Ways and Means, Trade and Industry, Agriculture and Food, Social Services, and Food Security—to address weaknesses in government programs and ensure accountability for market abuses.
“We are inviting them (supermarkets and big retailers of rice) next when the QuintaComm reconvenes,” he disclosed.
“We disaggregated market returns and as much as 48 percent of excess returns are at the wholesale to retail level,” Salceda said.
Last week, the country’s top rice importers came under intense scrutiny as the House intensified its investigation into an alleged cartel accused of manipulating prices and keeping retail costs high, despite tariff reductions that were intended to make rice more affordable for Filipinos.
Initial findings by the Quinta Comm revealed speculative practices and potential collusion in the rice importation sector, which lawmakers believed were driving up retail prices.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “Romualdez vows to go after economic saboteurs disrupting food security.”
