Article VII Section 17 of the Constitution says that the President shall have control of all the executive departments, bureaus and offices.
Last month, President Duterte issued Administrative Order No. 13 entitled “Removing Non-Tariff Barriers and Streamlining Administrative Procedures on the Importation of Agricultural Products”.
Last Thursday, the National Food Authority (NFA) held a non-tariff barrier bidding process for the purchase of 250,000 metric tons (MT) of rice. Only 47,000 MT was sold through this process. Why? Because the NFA set a floor price of $428.18 per MT which traders found to be too low. At $1= P54 and 1MT= 1000 kilos, then the floor price of $428.18 is equal to P23.12 per kilo. Most traders were seeking prices between $450 and $480 a ton. Traders are not noted for their altruism but the NFA has put itself into this position by not reaching agreement for greater rice importation earlier.
NFA admits that it will have to rebid the remaining 203,000 MT very soon.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the retail price of regular-milled and well-milled rice increased by P7.00 and P8.03 per kilo, respectively between September 2017 and September 2018.
Last month’s inflation rose to 6.7 percent which, according to Rep. Joey Salceda of Albay pushes a further 2.4 million Filipinos into poverty.
Meanwhile, anecdotal evidence suggests that the price of shabu has softened. This means that the import controls for shabu have become relatively lax compared with the controls for rice. Grotesque!
If the NFA had shown a greater propensity to import more rice earlier, price rises would not have risen so much, there would be less poverty and the critical situation we have experienced for months would have been ameliorated.
Sixteen million people voted for President Duterte on the basis that he would be able to mitigate the adverse circumstance of the majority. Nobody voted for the enormous Executive Branch over which Mr. Duterte is supposed to have authority. I am not convinced that he receives fully the effective support of all those who are mandated to maximize efforts to ensure food security.
Spokespeople are developing the bad habit of explaining away inflation as being temporary. NFA spokesperson Rex Estoperez suggests that rice prices will rollback by P3 per kilo ‘written a month’.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo, whose dress code does not suggest he is a regular jeepney passenger, tells us the jeepney fare is ‘only P10’ and ‘hopefully we’ll go back to normal’.
I predict P10 will be the new normal and I see no rollbacks in the near future./PN
