Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles at Meets Inquirer Multimedia.
INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON
DAVAO CITY — Davao First District Rep. Karlo Nograles proposed that the National Food Authority (NFA) increase the buying price of rice and buy from farmers in Mindanao to offset whatever effects the onslaught of Typhoon “Ompong” would have on the rice production in Northern Luzon.
Nograles, who was a guest at the multimedia forum Meet the Inquirer, said rice prices would continue to soar and the country would be faced by a much greater problem if the typhoon would cross the rice-producing areas of Northern Luzon, also known as the country’s rice granary.
“If the Luzon (production) will be wiped out, simbako (God forbid), if it will be devastated, what’s gonna happen to the price of rice?” the congressman asked. “So, what am I proposing? (I’m proposing) that the NFA council calls an emergency meeting and just this once, raise the buying price of rice to P22, corner the market in Mindanao, buy what you can find para di makuha ng (so that these would not be taken by the) commercial (rice traders),” Nograles said. “That way there would be enough stock to sell at P32 and stop inflation,” he added.
“If you’re able to gather enough buffer stock and pour in all those stocks in the markets, the prices of commercial rice would no longer be that high because traders will be forced to compete with the NFA,” Nograles said.
He said that NFA is buying rice at prices that are too low for farmers to even get back the cost of production./lb