The Department of Agriculture said Wednesday it will not impose price controls on rice and other agricultural products despite the impact of the El Niño phenomenon and rice inflation soaring to a 14-year record high of 22.6 percent last month.
“The DA is not considering any price control on rice,” Agriculture spokesperson Arnel de Mesa said.
He said amid global market volatility and unpredictable weather events like El Niño, the department’s priority is ensuring a steady supply of essentials over manipulating prices.
President Marcos, for his part, lamented that farmers remain among the poorest despite being the primary food providers for the nation.
“It is hard for me to see – it breaks my heart to see that up to now, the hardest hit in our country are the farmers. You are the ones who feed us, but you can’t even feed your own families. You are the ones who feed, who sustain the entire Philippines and all Filipinos,” Mr. Marcos said during a distribution of land titles in Davao City.
“Assistance from the government is insufficient. This will change. We will not allow farming to remain the most challenging livelihood,” he said.
The President added he would like to see the Department of Agrarian Reform to double its distribution of land titles in 2024 from 90,000 titles last year.
International prices of rice have been fluctuating as countries try to increase their rice reserves through importation on the back of a potential drop in harvest due to an expected strong El Niño episode.
The Department said it will rather allow “market forces to dictate the prices” as it also rejected earlier suggestions of imposing suggested retail prices (SRPs) on agricultural goods.
The DA said farmers often bear the brunt of price controls as traders simply adjust their purchase prices to maintain profit margins, thus impacting consumers.
As this developed, Mr. Marcos attributed the drop in commodity prices to the government’s proactive measures, including the implementation of the National Adaptation Plan and the reactivation of Task Force El Niño.
Headline inflation further eased to 2.78 percent in last month, the lowest since the 2.3 percent recorded in October 2020.
“We remain committed to easing the burden on our citizens,” Mr. Marcos said.
Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the latest inflation rate indicates that the government’s economic policies are effective, despite global headwinds and climate change.
Speaker Martin Romualdez said the House of Representatives is “one with the government” in its efforts to further bring down the prices of basic commodities.
“It is reassuring that our inflation is within the bounds of the government’s forecast of 2 to 4 percent range. This is a relief to our people whose incomes have been chipped by rapidly rising prices of commodities,” Romualdez said in a statement.
Romualdez, however, said the country’s economy is “not out of the woods yet” and efforts should be bolstered to “temper inflation and other disruptions in the value chain amid global economic headwinds and climate change.”
“As part of the visible hand that regulates the market to protect our consumers, the House guarantees that it shall echo the voice of the Filipinos in crafting laws to ensure that basic commodities and prices of products will be accessible and affordable for all,” Romualdez said.