Congressional leaders were convinced that government data on the supply of onions, particularly those coming from the Department of Agriculture (DA) were either fake or “invented.”
Majority leader and Zamboanga Rep. Mannix Dalipe and Committee on
Appropriations senior vice chairperson Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo were disappointed that they did not get satisfactory answers from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) during Wednesday’s House inquiry on the alleged hoarding of onions and agricultural products.
Earlier, Speaker Martin Romualdez warned unscrupulous businessmen suspected of hoarding onions and other agricultural products that their days were numbered.
The House Committee on Agriculture and Food chaired by Rep. Wilfrido Mark Enverga conducted the inquiry on the issue of hoarding–which is believed to have caused hefty price increases on onions and other basic commodities.
Among the initial issues that Dalipe raised during the hearing was the fact that Will Builders Inc. (WBI), one of the country’s largest cold storage firms, was not listed in the BPI’s records. The BPI is an attached agency of the DA.
“’Yung mga datos natin, artificial lang ba yan? Pinepeke lang ba yan? ‘Di ba? May laman ba yung cold storage? Wala bang laman ‘yung cold storage? Kasi d’yan mo malalaro ‘yung presyo,” Dalipe asked the BPI representative to the hearing.
“What if the cold storage is empty, and your report says it’s full. What will happen to the market? That will be taken advantage of by some people, na walang supply. Tataas ngayon ang presyo kasi mali ang datos niyo,” he pointed out.
Dalipe said he believes that “price manipulation” was taking place in the local onion industry.
“There were reports that we had sufficient onion and garlic, and here comes the months of October, November, December, na tumaas ‘yung presyo. If the reports were true, why would the price go up?” he noted. Maricel V. Cruz
“So anong ginagawa nung ahensyang nagmo-monitor? Totoo ba or peke ba ‘yung scenario ma may supply? Pineke ba ‘yung datos na may supply para sumipa ‘yung presyo, tumaas, para magkaroon ng opportunity ba ‘yung mga smuggler, ganun ba ‘yun? I’m getting suspicious already kasi
parang may gumagawa ng scenario to create something, a scenario which makes it profitable,” Dalipe said.
Quimbo, an economist, also grilled the BPI on the “incredulous and unexplained” figures it gave to the Enverga panel.
According to the BPI, the annual increase in demand for onions from 2011 to 2021 was a steady five percent.
But from 2021 to 2022, there was a perplexing 39 percent increase in demand for onion.
“‘Yun ang para sa akin, bagong misteryo. Paano nyo maipapaliwanag ‘yun. Taun-taon halos five percent lang ang pagtaas ng demand? Kasi taun-taon naman ang magdi-drive ng increase in demand for onion is population growth. Hindi naman nagbabago ang paggisa natin eh,” she said.
Turning to the resource persons from the DA, Quimbo asked: “May paliwanag ba kayo? Kasi kung wala kayong magandang paliwanag ng 39 percent increase in demand iniimbento ninyo ang datos na ‘to at dina-justify ninyo ang mataas na presyo ng sibuyas.”
Arnold Timoteo of the DA-High Value Crops Development Program replied that the demand was based on the per capita consumption provided by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). He also said that the DA would revisit their data.
Quimbo requested that the panel invite the DA team that furnished them the data to the next hearing set on February 14.
Enverga, for his part, shared the dissatifaction of Dalipe and Quimbo. “Medyo disappointing dahil nga ‘yung data gaps between BPI, PSA. Medyo nalilito kami dito sa mga bagong rebelasyon namin dito. Even yung data nila particular dun sa mga cold storages,” he said.
“Again, nadismaya ako dun sa pagkakataon na madiskubre na ‘yung [onion] traders ay hindi alam ng BPI so malaking butas, ito particular for yung mga mapagsamantalang tao. Since hindi alam kung asan yung particular supply sa particular moment eh malaking problema natin dito,” he said.
“So medyo overwhelming na disappointing, but we hope sa Tuesday (Feb. 14) ready naman yung mga agency na ni-require natin na pumunta dito,” Enverga added. Maricel V. Cruz