MANILA, Philippines — Filipino families continue to feel the burden of rising commodity prices, aggravated by the country’s dwindling rice stock and surging fuel costs.
An ordinary netizen recently twitted that a P120-budget is no longer enough to satisfy his craving for pork sinigang.
“I know nothing about economics. But I know that with P120, I can already cook sinigang and pay for my fare going to the market. But things are different now. The cost has nearly doubled,” he said.
It is the same story for housemaid Jessica Enriquez who budgets and prepares meals for a family of four.
She would normally shell out P80 to P90 to buy five pieces of tilapia, but the cost has now jumped to P150.
Filipinos can only complain, but at the end of the day they still buy as food always gets the biggest chunk of everyone’s budget.
Increasing cost of basic food items have been evident since the start of the year given the government’s implementation of a new tax program which has pushed inflation up and exceeded targets.
The National Movement for Food Sovereignty, a member of the Asia-Pacific Network for Food Sovereignty, maintained that the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law was not exactly made to ease the burden of consumers.
“The TRAIN aims to fund billions of infrastructure projects of the government and not to lessen taxes of ordinary workers because it even caused a spike in the prices of basic commodities,” the group said.
In particular, rice prices have not shown any signs of decline for seven months now despite the arrival of cheaper imported rice.
Average wholesale price of well-milled rice rose eight percent to P41.87 per kilogram year-on-year, while average retail price increased seven percent to P44.69 per kg.
The wholesale price of regular-milled rice was P38.69 per kg, 10 percent higher than the previous year. Its average retail price also went up nine percent to P41.07 per kg.
Commercial prices of rice are increasing primarily because of the lack of supply from state-run National Food Authority (NFA), which serves as stabilizer in the market.
And even with the Department of Agriculture (DA) implementing the suggested retail price (SRP) in some commodities, prices are nowhere near returning to their previous levels.
NMFS argued there is no way prices of rice, or any other commodity would decrease unless the government prioritizes farmers by lowering the cost of production and providing better technical support to improve productivity.
“NFA has to ensure that it is doing its job of buying from local farmers so it will also trickle down to those poor families,” the group said.
Unfortunately, the grains agency has failed in its mandate to procure local palay (unhusked rice) due to higher prices being offered by private traders.
Its P17 per kg support price cannot compete with the P22 to P25 per kg offered by traders.
The NFA has repeatedly junked NFA’s request to increase its buying price.
“They do not want NFA to increase their buying price because it will worsen inflation,” NMFS said.
The NMFS said the government has obviously given up its earlier promise of achieving rice self-sufficiency. Instead, it is leaning toward importation to ensure food security.
Duterte even admitted that the Philippines is unlikely to achieve rice self-sufficiency under his term due to dwindling farm areas and the continuous increase in population.
“I do not believe we can be self-sufficient in rice. If you ask me, we’ll just have to import rice,” Duterte said.