Speaker bats for creation of anti-rice cartel task force

THE GOVERNMENT needs to create a task force to police rice trading, Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez said on Sunday, citing persistently high prices of the staple.

In a statement, Mr. Romualdez said his proposed task force should be composed of the Agriculture, Justice, and Trade and Industry departments, as well as the bureaus of Internal Revenue and Customs, and the National Bureau of Investigation.

The task force should be given the power to conduct rice inventory checks and inspect for regulatory compliance. It should also be allowed to “immediately padlock” rice businesses found with violations, he added.

“The Filipino people are paying unnecessarily high prices for rice, which should now be at P35 to P40 per kilo due to oversupply and tariff reductions,” he said in a statement. “This blatant manipulation is unacceptable.”

President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. issued in June Executive Order No. 62, which reduced rice import tariffs to 15% from 35% to help contain inflation.

The House is conducting an inquiry into a suspected a rice cartel, which is thought to be keeping prices artificially high despite reduced import tariffs.

The retail price of rice remains high despite an “abundant” supply of the grain, Marikina Rep. Stella Luz A. Quimbo said in the same statement. “It is clear that there is collusion between importers and traders.”

In November, the Philippine Statistics Authority  said the average price of regular-milled rice was P49.24 per kilo, with well-milled rice selling for P54.64. Special rice averaged P63.

Mr. Romualdez also directed the House quinta committee, which is conducting a joint inquiry into the alleged existence of a rice cartel, to speed up the drafting of amendments to the 2016 Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act.

“This is not just an economic issue — it’s a matter of food security and national stability,” he said. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio