Sara Duterte told: Your dad’s regime had P70/kg rice, bukbok
Former President Rodrigo Duterte (L) and Vice President Sara Duterte. | PHOTOS: Screengrab from ICC and official Facebook page of Inday Sara Duterte
TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte — It is “ironic” for Vice President Sara Duterte to mock the Marcos administration’s efforts to bring down rice prices to P20 per kilogram when her father’s regime had rice priced at P70 per kilogram, Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said on Sunday.
In a statement, Adiong also said that former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration even sold rice that was infested with weevils, or bukbok, which former Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol said was safe to eat.
At one point during the Duterte administration, rice prices surged from P50 to P70 in some areas, forcing towns like Zamboanga City to declare a state of calamity. In August 2018, Piñol denied it, but he eventually admitted that rice prices went as high as P80 per kilogram in Tawi-tawi.
READ: Piñol: No P70 per kilo rice in Zamboanga City
“It is ironic that the Vice President is mocking efforts to lower rice prices to P20 per kilogram when, during the administration of her father, rice prices even soared to P70 per kilo in some areas,” said Adiong, an assistant majority leader of the House of Representatives.
“It was under the Duterte government that we saw imported rice shipments infested with bukbok, when her father’s appointed Agriculture Secretary, Manny Piñol, oversaw rice importation. Before pointing fingers, it would be better for her to look back at the failures of the administration she proudly represents,” he added.
Adiong’s statements came after Vice President Duterte, in an ambush interview in Negros Occidental last Wednesday, criticized President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration for selling P20 per kilogram rice in Visayas during an election season.
According to Duterte, the program comes “too late,” adding that the Marcos administration is just resorting to rice subsidies because they know that Marcos’ Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas slate performs badly in Visayas.
“You know that is just for the elections and for their senators who are part of their alliance to win,” she said in Filipino.
“I don’t know what their motive is. But yes, they are tricking the people with that P20 per kilo of rice. And you will be confused why Visayas only, aren’t the people from Luzon and Mindanao hungry also? […] Maybe they have problems with votes from Visayas,” she added.
The P20 per kilogram rice was Marcos’ campaign during the 2022 elections when his Uniteam tandem with the Vice President was still alive.
Last Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. announced the availability of P20 per kilogram of rice in Visayas through the government subsidies meant to shoulder higher market prices.
READ: DA will start selling rice at P20 per kilo – Tiu Laurel
Adiong said Vice President Duterte should just support initiatives that seek to ease the people’s burden.
“Rather than criticize, the vice president should support every effort that aims to provide relief to the Filipino people, especially when it involves making basic necessities more affordable,” Adiong said.
“What a leader should do, if he or she really cares for the people, is to support steps to make people’s lives comfortable, not to hit on initiatives that help them,” he added. “We should be working together to find solutions, not tearing down every attempt simply because it comes from another administration.”
Alyansa candidates like former Senate president Vicente “Tito” Sotto and Makati Mayor Abby Binay also opposed Vice President Duterte’s suggestions.
During a press briefing in Pangasinan last Friday, Sotto asked Duterte where she wants the funds to go — to rice subsidies that would benefit people or the pockets of corrupt officials?
“There’s a saying that it’s better late than never, right? And maybe they failed to figure this out immediately,” Sotto said. “As I said earlier, there were concerns about the government shouldering subsidies for rice. So what? That should be the case, because that’s taxpayers’ money, it should be consumed by the people also.”
“Instead of being given to the corrupt only, right? Where do they want the funds to go, to the pockets of corrupt officials? Let us give that subsidy to our people so that they would not go hungry and to reduce prices of goods,” he added.
READ: Sotto claps back: Fund rice subsidy for people or lose it to corruption?
Binay, on the other hand, said the government is being criticized whatever it does, even when it provides solutions to problems. Both Sotto and Binay also disputed Duterte’s claims that they are performing badly in Visayas.
