President Rodrigo Duterte has signed an executive order that will impose a price cap on select food items in public markets such as pork and chicken, Malacañang said Thursday.
“It’s, I think, forthcoming,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a virtual presser, when asked for an update on the status of price ceiling on pork and other food products.
Roque, however, said he had yet to see the EO signed by the President.
He also did not provide additional details about the implementation of price ceiling on farm commodities.
“We are ready to release [the EO] imposing price control [on select food items],” Roque said.
The plan to impose a price ceiling on food items such as pork, chicken, fish and vegetables came amid the rising retail prices of farm commodities.
Duterte’s signing of the EO also came following calls to implement a price cap to stop the cost of pork and chicken from rising.
The prices of meat and vegetables rose by 50 to 275 percent this month compared to January 2020, according to the price monitoring report released by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The Agriculture and Trade departments, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, and Metro Manila mayors have signed a resolution urging Duterte to impose a price cap of PHP270 per kilogram for pork kasim pigue and PHP300 per kilo for liempo.
Price ceiling
They also recommended a price ceiling of P160 for whole dressed chicken.
In November last year, Duterte imposed a 60-day price freeze following the declaration of a state of calamity in Luzon in the wake of Typhoon Ulysses.
The price freeze, which already expired, covered basic food items like rice, pork, chicken, beef, vegetables, root crops, sugar, fresh fruits, canned fish, and other marine products, among basic commodities.
Meanwhile, Senator Imee Marcos said the “knee-jerk reaction” of the Department of Agriculture and Department of Trade and Industry to control runaway market prices through the “vicious cycle” of importation would only leave local vegetable and livestock farmers at the mercy of ruthless traders and cartels.
Due to this, he said the DA and DTI should boost the transport and delivery of local agricultural produce before resorting to importation and price controls amid rising food costs.
Marcos, chair of the Senate committee on economic affairs, said filed Senate Resolution 619 to investigate the status of the DA’s P24-billion stimulus fund – the single biggest item for emergency funding under Bayanihan 2, and why the DTI has failed to control food costs despite issuing suggested retail prices.
She pointed out that the country’s food security in coming months will depend on a more targeted use of the P24-billion DA fund and of the agency’s quick response and contingency funds.
The DA’s more diffuse and medium-term programs, involving the development of agri-entrepreneurs and research and business “corridors,” she said, will have no immediate impact on the urgent problem of spiraling food prices and dwindling supply.
She said this should not have been included in the Bayanihan menu in the first place, as they address neither the pandemic nor the agricultural shortages we are now confronting.
Domestic supplies
“By way of warning, let us exhaust all domestic supplies before embarking as usual on the knee-jerk DA response of importation.
“We can transform this vicious cycle into a virtuous one to benefit both our own farmers and our hapless consumers,” Marcos also said.
Farmers in Benguet have complained that harvested produce already delivered at trading stations may rot if more delivery trucks do not come to collect their vegetables.
Meanwhile, livestock raisers expressed fears that cases of African swine fever may increase with the entry of meat imports.
“Start with deploying more trucks to collect and deliver agricultural produce from their sources. There are still local food supplies waiting to be sold,” Marcos said.
“Also step up the creation and presence of Kadiwa centers, which have endured since their creation in the 70’s to offer lower, farmer-to-consumer prices in depressed urban communities and hard-to-reach areas,” the senator added.
Marcos warned that food importation is diminishing interest in farming and may fulfill the prediction that by 2030 the Philippines will no longer have any local farmers, now at an average age of 57.
At the same time, a congressional leader urged the DA and Department of Interior and Local Government to deploy more Kadiwa rolling stores to help Filipinos cope with the continued spike in food prices.
Deputy Majority Leader and Quezon City Rep. Alfred Vargas filed House Resolution 1495 calling calling for more rolling stores through the government’s Kadiwa Ni Ani at Kita Program.
“More rolling stores should be deployed immediately due to unstable food prices. More people are going hungry by the day,” said Vargas, chair of the House committee on social services.
The lawmaker’s resolution is a follow-up to his earlier appeal for government to ease the added financial strain of higher food prices on the poor, after vegetable prices rose by 19.73 percent and meat by up to 9.95 percent this month.
Kadiwa is a market system launched in 2019, which sells major agricultural goods at reasonably low prices to help poor Filipino households.
The goods are sourced directly from farmers and fisherfolk.
The program is a collaborative effort of the DA, the DILG, and Food Terminal Inc. (FTI), and is available in three variants – Kadiwa on Wheels, Kadiwa Retail, and Kadiwa Online.
Kadiwa program
The resolution said that government should ensure full support or the program, recognizing “the importance and success of the Kadiwa Program to maintain and stabilize prices, make accessible many affordable basic commodities, and support farmers and fisherfolk.”
The DA earlier attributed the food price hike to tight supply due to the series of typhoons that hit the country in the last quarter of 2020. The ongoing pandemic and Taal eruption last year had already hobbled food production.
The agency said food prices might not stabilize until March, when harvest season usually begins.
Vargas said he would also ask the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to consider extending additional cash aid, noting that the number of “food-poor” and “borderline food-poor” families also rose due to the pandemic.
In a related development, a party-list lawmaker lauded the House leadership for what he described as “prompt and timely” second-reading approval of the proposed Right to Adequate Food Act which hopes to reduce hunger and defeat malnutrition in the country especially among children.
Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta Party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles said that this swift action of the House under Speaker Lord Allan Velasco is “a solid gesture of his commitment to fulfill President Duterte’s call for the creation of a national masterplan to ensure food security and finally end hunger in the country.”
Nograles, author of House Bill 1532 or Right to Adequate Food Framework Act of 2019, was among the many food security bills which was consolidated to become HB 8242 which was approved on second reading Tuesday.
“This swift action of the House is a fulfillment of Speaker Velasco’s promise to President Duterte that the House will prioritize the passage of measures that are aligned with the administration’s legislative agenda,” said Nograles.
He noted that this measure is expected to breeze through the Senate because it was also being championed by Senators Edgardo Angara (Senate Bill 138) , Grace Poe (SB122) and Emmanuel Pacquiao and Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel Jr. (SBN559).
Barring unforeseen events, Nograles said he was hopeful that the Right to Adequate Food will be signed into law by the President before the end of the second quarter of this year.
Affordable food
“The proposed Right to Adequate Food Act is a timely legislation as there is really a need for the government to step-up efforts in ensuring the availability of adequate, nutritious and affordable food because of the massive economic dislocation that was caused by the Covid-19 pandemic,” Nograles said.
“Being one of the authors of this measure, I’m really happy that we are now a few steps closer for its enactment into law. The lack of a comprehensive framework embodying the right to adequate food is a chasm between policy and implementation. Public funds are not only inadequate but dissipated due to corruption,” he added.
“This comprehensive law will not only harmonize provisions of all laws related to Filipinos’ right to adequate food but would also clarify the scope and content of the right, establish standards for compliance, lay down principles to shape the process of realization, and prohibit violations of the right to adequate food,” Nograles said.
Once enacted, he said the measure would reinforce already existing government initiatives to fight hunger. This include President Duterte’s creation of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Zero Hunger which is the government’s lead agency in the formulation of a National Food Policy, which will outline national priorities based on a comprehensive understanding of the problem of hunger and related issues.
The Task Force, headed by his brother Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, is also the primary policy-making body that was tasked to provide a roadmap for achieving zero hunger, taking into consideration existing laws and issuances, as well as international laws and treaty obligations.
Under HB 8242 , the right to adequate food “calls for food availability and accessibility, which must be in quantity and quality sufficient to satisfy the dietary needs of the Filipinos that are sustainable, and do not interfere with the enjoyment of other human rights.”
When signed into law, the Commission on the Right to Adequate Food would be established and tasked to implement programs to eradicate hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.