Pork hoarders warned: You will get caught

MANILA, Philippines — The Duterte administration has warned that authorities can easily run after pork hoarders because the government already has a list of cold storage facilities.

“The NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) can easily catch you. The NBI only needs to look at cold storage facilities and it can check if there is hoarding of supplies. Do not do it during the time of COVID,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said at a press briefing last Tuesday.

The warning came after the government formed an Economic Intelligence Task Force that will run after pork hoarders and price manipulators.

Malacañang also called for a food security summit led by the agriculture department to address food supply issues and rising prices. No date has been set for the summit that also seeks to develop a national food security plan.

“The food security summit likewise aims to discuss mitigation measures on current issues affecting the agriculture sector such as the upsurge in the prices of pork, drop in farm gate prices of palay, the onslaught of African swine flu (ASF), among others,” Roque said in a statement yesterday.

Minority lawmakers Stella Quimbo and Arlene Brosas criticized the price ceiling on pork imposed by the executive branch.

“Imposing price ceilings on pork products in the midst of a shortage will only further dis-incentivize suppliers that are already struggling from the challenges imposed by recent calamities,” Quimbo argued.

“Enforcing a pork price ceiling when the glaring problem is the pork supply is pure hogwash. This will only cause further harm to hog raisers and sellers while the uncertainty of having enough supply remains,” Brosas said.

Metro pork supply assured

On the other hand, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Benhur Abalos said that Metro Manila supermarkets would continue supplying pork.

“With the help of the private sector and the local government units, we can expect enough and consistent supply of pork products in the coming days,” Abalos said.

He also called on 17 mayors of the Metro Manila Council (MMC) to immediately implement Executive Order 124 setting a 60-day price cap on pork and chicken.

For their part, vendors from the Balanga City Public Market in Bataan appealed to President Duterte to lower the price of hogs in piggeries and not in public markets.

Vendors complained that live weight prices from Tarlac suppliers are already at P215-P220 per kilo, but the government limits the price to P270.

“We cannot follow the P270 price ceiling because the live weight is P220. We will go bankrupt because of the many fees required. Our investment is already at P300. Prices must go down at the piggeries because wet markets really cannot sell at P270,” vendor spokesperson Marinel Palaypay said. – Edu Punay, Ghio Ong, Ric Sapnu