The Department of Trade and Industry 11 (DTI 11), bared on Wednesday that no rice hoarding is monitored in the three warehouses inspected in Davao City on Tuesday.
Deolly Roque, chief of the Regional Consumer Protection Division of DTI 11, said while there is no reported cases of rice hoarding, some dealers increased the prices of commercial rice amid the implementation of EO 39 or the “Imposition of Mandated Price Ceilings on Rice” signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., which took effect on Tuesday, September 5, 2023.
Marcos’ EO approved the recommendation to impose a price ceiling on rice at P41 for regular milled and P45 for well-milled rice.
“Sa tatlong warehouses, walang nakitaan na hoarding only that ang buying price nila is high and the reasons given by the warehouse owners, suppliers and importers is it is because it’s lean season and since July walang harvest ang ating local farmers kaya menos ang supply ng locally produced rice and harvest season will start next month pa,” Roque said during the AFP PNP Press Corps media briefing at the Royal Mandaya Hotel on Wednesday.
Roque said it is expected that the supply of local rice will increase by October.
“In terms of importation, sabi ng mga importers naglimit daw ang Vietnam government, which is our source country for imported rice, ang importation nila to other countries including the Philippines,” she said.
An inter-agency task force composed of DTI 11, Department of Agriculture 11 (DA 11), Food and Drug Administration 11 (FDA 11), Department of Health 11 (DOH 11), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and Philippine National Police (PNP) tasked to look into the price monitoring and other issues concerning rice.
Roque clarified that no enforcement yet is agreed by members of the task force and there is a directive from DTI head office that they will focus more on price monitoring for the first seven days.
She added that profiling of rice retailers who may qualify for government subsidy, as the mandated price cap in the Davao Region, is also ongoing.
The government subsidy allows retailers to bring down the prices of rice as mandated by EO 39. The subsidy will be computed and will cover the difference between a seller’s buying price and the price ceiling imposed by the government.
“DTI 11 is more on profiling and pagkuha ng mga information sa mga buying price and selling price in the market, source whether local or imported,” Roque said.
Based on Republic Act 7581 or the Price Act, EO 39 is intended to safeguard consumers against price manipulation, hoarding, cartels, and the likes.
