Marcos justifies food emergency declaration

To "force" the prices of rice down, President Marcos justified on Friday the impending declaration of a food security emergency by the Department of Agriculture (DA).

- By HELEN FLORES

Marcos said rice prices remain high in local markets despite the various interventions made by the government.

"The reason that we are doing this is we have done everything to lower the price of rice, but the market is not being allowed to work properly," Marcos said in an interview in Leyte.

He said the normal supply and demand curves are so disrupted that "even if we lower (the prices of) all inputs, the selling (prices) remain high." "And so, we have to force that price down, and we have to make sure that the market works properly, that there's no friction cost happening because of so many things," the President said.

"Some of these are illegal. That's what Congress is investigating now." Marcos said the DA is expected to receive the formal recommendation of the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC) for the declaration of a food security emergency by next week.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. on Thursday said there is sufficient basis to declare a food security emergency as rice prices remain high despite the imposition of lower tariffs on imported rice.

Asked why rice prices did not decrease despite the tariff cut and the lower global prices, Tiu Laurel replied: "In my opinion, there was some profiteering." Rice prices remain high despite declining global rice costs and tariff reductions ordered by Marcos through Executive Order 62 in June last year.