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ON orders of President Gloria Arroyo, the Department
of Justice has restarted its anti-rice hoarding campaign, but on a
wider scale following the unusual sudden surge in the price of rice,
particularly in the Mindanao area.
“I have discussed this with the
President and she gave her go signal,” Justice Secretary Raul
Gonzalez said Friday.
At Malacañang, Incoming Press
Secretary Jesus Dureza
said rice prices in the Southern Mindanao
region have started to stabilize after government intervened in the
situation.
Gonzalez said he has already
instructed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to gather
evidence against suspected rice cartels and price manipulators, so
appropriate actions can be taken against them including the filing
of charges in court.
“I have already ordered the NBI
to activate all the people on the ground and start going after
hoarders and cartels,” he said.
This time around, the justice
chief added, the campaign will be more wide ranging and will cover
farmers, millers and traders in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The anti-rice hoarding campaign,
with the Justice department as the lead agency, has been suspended
for a while also on orders of the President, who Gonzalez said, was
apprehensive then that the campaign could backfire. Instead the
campaign was focused on those who divert government-subsidized rice.
However, he said that with
confirmed reports of skyrocketing prices of the staple in Mindanao
and in other areas, the government should act accordingly to protect
the interest of the people.
But even as farmers were included
on the watchlist of rice hoarders, Gonzalez expressed belief that
they are less likely to hoard rice.
“I don’t believe that
individual farmers have 10,000 sacks. I still believe that it is the
traders [and] the millers as farmers could not hide huge quantity of
rice in their homes lest it be eaten by rats,” Gonzalez noted.
Prices of rice, particularly in
the Mindanao, breached the P60 per kilo level last week.
Gonzalez pointed out that there
is no reason for rice prices to climb, adding that the country has
more than sufficient stocks and the summer harvest was good.
Gonzalez said that persons or
groups found to be possessing 10,000 sacks of rice or more are
liable to be charged for violating the country’s anti-hoarding
regulation. Rice hoarding is punishable with six to eight years of
imprisonment and a fine of P2 million.
Mindanao prices stabilizing
Dureza said he went to Mindanao
on Friday to personally monitor the situation following a meeting in
Malacañang on rice issue. Dureza said he would visit other areas.
“The immediate intervention by
the government through the local government units in tandem with the
national agencies has allayed speculation that there is a rice
shortage. There is enough supply of rice. What we need to do is to
strengthen monitoring and communication
efforts to avoid speculation,”
Dureza said.
Reports over the past few days
said the price of rice has risen by P6 to P10 per kilo from the
previous week’s average of P37 per kilo in the provinces of Davao
del Sur, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Compostela Valley, and the
cities of Tagum, Panabo, Digos, Mati and Davao City.
The price of commercial rice in
the market shot up to P47 per kilo in less than two days. But
agriculture officials said a recent inventory showed the region’s
rice stocks are enough for the next 58 to 69 days.
--William B. Depasupil and Angelo S. Samonte
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