Sen. Imee Marcos. Senate PRIB file photo / Joseph Vidal
MANILA, Philippines—Even the late President Ferdinand Marcos would rise from his grave and declare another martial law because of the country’s problems with rice.
Take this from his daughter, Senator Imee Marcos, who was in disbelief at what was happening in the local rice industry.
“Wag na tayong magtanim ng palay para matigilan na ang pagdurusa ng magsasakang Pilipino — todo import na lang tayo!” the senator said in a message to reporters on Monday.
(Let’s stop planting rice to end Filipino farmers’ suffering– just import everything!)
“Babangon at magma-martial law ang tatay ko sa ginagawa nila sa bigas ngayong birthday pa nya!” she added.
(My dad will rise and declare martial law with what they’re doing with the rice on his birthday!)
The late president would have turned 106 years old this Monday.
The senator issued the remarks when she sought comment on the Department of Finance’s (DOF) proposal to remove or reduce the 35 percent import tariff rates on rice to arrest the surge in its prices.
The proposal was put forward even after her brother, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., ordered the imposition of price caps on rice through Executive Order 39.
“What sinister forces are at work in the rice industry?” Imee Marcos asked. “First, there was no apparent shortage, but suddenly, the price of rice skyrockets.”
Then, to bring price under control, EO 39 was pushed supposedly even without the economic team’s “knowledge much less assent,” Imee Marcos noted.
“Traders, retailers and the entire marketplace [are] in disarray as warehouses, illegal or not, are raided willy-nilly. So of course, we now have to lower or remove the import tariff entirely!” the senator went on.
“Haven’t we heard this story too many times for us to believe it all again?” she asked again.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, meanwhile, believes that several measures should have been taken first, even before the price caps on the commodity were imposed.
These include the DOF’s proposal to remove or reduce the rice import tariffs, going after rice hoarders and price fixers, and allowing the National Food Authority (NFA) to “release into the market the amount of rice needed to stabilize the price of rice.”
“These are just 3 measures which should have been done even before entertaining the idea of a price cap,” Pimentel said in another text message.
“The amount of the ayuda being given away should just have been given to the NFA to replenish their stock with new rice, which they are mandated to buy from local rice farmers,” he said.
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