Aquino calls meeting on commodity prices

President Benigno Aquino III. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

ABOARD PR001— President Benigno Aquino said Tuesday he would call for a meeting with the various government agencies concerned to get to the bottom of the rising prices of basic commodities such as rice and garlic.

“There will be a meeting, perhaps this week—if not, at the latest, by next week— to check especially rice but also garlic, to determine exactly what is causing these price spikes,” Aquino told reporters at a press conference aboard a chartered flight Tuesday en route to Hiroshima from Tokyo where he had a with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Aquino said many reasons have been advanced for the sudden increase in the prices of rice, including the effects of past typhoons and even the Philippines’ territorial dispute with China.

“We need definitive answers,” Aquino said.

Aquino said he had been told that it was the well-milled rice that “has had this very significant spike.”

This, he said, does not affect the “vast majority” of Filipinos, who do not consume well-milled rice.

Nonetheless, Aquino said, the National Food Authority  has doubled its normal supply to ensure adequate supply of rice—a constant in Filipino meals—and “prevent any undue upward movement, [such as] panic buying that will induce further price spikes.”

He noted that government’s importation of 800,000 metric tons has been criticized, even if it were for the expected lean months of June and July. Some 12,000 metric tons of the 800,000 have already arrived, he said.

Aquino said he has asked the Department of Trade and Industry  to check the possibility of using satellite imagery to identify land planted to rice as well as determine the amount of rice per hectare that people could expect.

Aquino said this would show “a real and accurate picture” of the country’s rice supply.

RELATED STORIES

Aquino downplays price hike, says not everyone buys well-milled rice

Gov’t working to stabilize supply, prices of rice, garlic, ginger—Palace

Low supply? hoarding? DA probes ‘garlic gold’