PH unlikely to ever be rice self-sufficient, says Duterte
MANILA – The Philippines is unlikely to become self- sufficient in rice production, President Rodrigo Duterte s a i d o n Wednesday, appearing to contradict the Department of Agriculture, which had set a 2020 target to produce enough rice to meet the country’s needs.
The country is a frequent buyer of rice mainly from Vietnam and Thailand, usually importing more than one million metric tons of the staple grain every year to meet domestic demand and maintain stockpiles.
Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol said last year t he country could produce enough rice for its own needs by 2020 with the help of free irrigation and other state measures to boost output.
“I do not believe we can be rice- sufficient,” Duterte said in a speech to officials of state universities at Malacañang.
“If you’d ask me, in the next how many years, we will just have to import rice,” Duterte said.
He s a i d s h r i n k i n g farmland and a growing population made it difficult to produce enough rice to
MANILA – The government is considering expanding the scope of suggested retail prices to include chicken, vegetables, rice and fish to guard against unwarranted price increases, an official said Thursday.
A technical working group is looking into the production cost of goods to establish the baseline for prices, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol
MANILA – F i n a n c e secretary Carlos Dominguez III has directed the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to track down manufacturers of counterfeit tobacco products and their possible cohorts in government, who had a role in allowing the entry of unlicensed cigarette-making machines into the country.
According t o a news release issued Wednesday, Dominguez also ordered BOC Commissioner Isidro Lapeña and BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay to disable the confiscated machines so they
domestic needs. In April, Duterte ordered the National Food Authority ( NFA) t o build up i t s depleted rice stockpiles to the equivalent of 60 days of national consumption, or about 1.92 million metric
The Department of Trade and I ndustry currently imposes SRPs on sardines, bread, milk, instant noodles, bottled water, corned beef, meat loaf, luncheon meat, soy sauce, fish sauce, candles and bath soap. “Tinanong namin sila production cost because kung magkano ba ang inyong based on the production cost
estimate magkakaroon ng merkado,” Piñol told. kung magkano dapat ibenta sa
Regular rice should not be sold by more than P40 per kilo, while well- milled rice should cost from P41 to P42 per kilo, he said.
Rice i mports by t he National Food Authority started arriving this week and will be available in the market as early as Sunday, he said. ( News)
ABS-CBN could no longer be used.
Lapeña and Dulay were also told to find out how the machines used to manufacture the fake cigarettes, which were uncovered in recent operations in Luzon and Mindanao, were able to enter the country undetected by authorities.
“I want to hit them with everything you’ve got, the Customs and the BIR, and get to the bottom of this,” Dominguez told officials of the two bureaus during a recent Executive Committee ( ExeCom) meeting of the Department of Finance (DOF). tons.
The NFA has so far bought 500,000 metric tons, mostly from Vietnam and Thailand, and i s set to i mport an additional volume of up to 805,200 metric tons.
D u t e r t e s a i d o n
Dominguez issued the directive after the BIR reported that its strike team had raided several warehouses storing smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes in Malabon and Manila.
The raids yielded a total of 531 master cases of fake and smuggled cigarettes bearing various brands.
B O C o p e r a t i v e s , meanwhile, had seized counterfeit cigarettes and bogus tax stamps worth P500 million in three warehouses in Bulacan.
The BIR strike t eam likewise seized four unlicensed Wednesday he wants NFA warehouses to be filled “up to the ceiling” with rice.
“I do not care if we have to sell it at a lower price someday if there’s a glut in the market,” he said.
Retail rice prices i n cigarette- making machines, six cigarette-packing machines and a filter-making machine, along with fake cigarette tax stamps inside the San Simon Industrial Park in Pampanga.
The bureau reported to the finance chief that the machines were smuggled into the country.
Two factories in Cagayan de Oro, meanwhile, yielded unregistered cigarette-making machines, packaging machines and a filter-making machine during recent operations conducted by the BIR strike team. Filter rods, tipping paper, cigarette paper, cut the Philippines have risen steadily since the start of the year due to the absence of government- subsidized supply in the market. This has fed inflation which hit its highest level in at least five years in May. ( Reuters) filters, inner liners pack and wrap film, plug wraps, acetate tow and other materials used to manufacture cigarettes were also seized during the raids.
T h e B I R i n f o r med Dominguez that “as instructed, the machines will be properly disabled to prevent their further usage.”
“You better trace where these machines came from,” Dominguez said. “Who are the people behind this? How did these machines get in?”
In response to Dominguez’s o r d e r , B O C d e p u t y