House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Speaker’s office)

House Speaker Martin Romualdez is happy to see firsthand the lowered prices of rice in the local market, but the best is yet to come for Filipino consumers as the "ber" months go by. 

On Wednesday, Sept. 11, Romualdez visited Guadalupe Market in Makati, as well as the Farmers’ Market and Nepa Q-Mart in Quezon City upon the invitation of the Philippine Rice Industry Stakeholders' Movement (PRISM), a large organization of rice traders; the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI); and the Department of Agriculture. 

Accompanying the House leader was ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo, the deputy majority leader for communications. 

Romualdez, who had earned the moniker "Mr. Rice", attributed the drop in rice prices to the effective interventions made by the Marcos administration to reduce the costs of the Filipino staple, and to stabilize the food supply and protect consumers from price surges. 

“Nakita natin may P45 kada kilo, meron ding P42 for broken rice, yung well-milled P45. At yun talaga ang gusto nating makita, na pababa ng pababa (ang presyo ng bigas),” said Speaker. Retail prices of well-milled rice reached north of P50 earlier this year. 

(We saw retail prices of P45 per kilo, there was also P42 for broken rice, well-milled was P45. And that's what we really wanted to see, to see it fall further.) 

“On behalf of the House of Representatives, we welcome this positive development. This is truly in line with the Marcos administration’s commitment to ensuring that food, particularly rice, remains affordable and accessible for all Filipinos,” added the Leyte 1st district congressman. 

He expressed hopes the trend will continue to bring much-needed relief to Filipino families, particularly in the coming Christmas season. 

“Yung nakita po namin dito na factor, yung pagbaba po ng taripa from 35 percent to 15 percent. So natutuwa po yung mga retailers natin saka yung mga consumers natin,” said PRISM's Orly Manuntag who cited Executive Order (EO) No. 62 that President Marcos signed last June 20. The directive effectively reduced tariff on imported rice.


P38-kilo rice soon? 

Buoyed by the projection of rice retailers, Tulfo expressed confidence that rice will get even cheaper later this year. 

“Parating pa lang yung mga [imported] bigas ngayon. So asahan daw by end of September buong Metro Manila na ay may mga bigas na na mura," Tulfo said. 

(The rice imports are just about to arrive. So they said that by the end of September, the entirety of Metro Manila will have cheap rice.) 

"Tapos sa mga probinsya, by October first week meron na rin…nangako ang Grecon (Grains Retailers Confederation of the Philippines) na maaaring bumaba pa ito, hopefully by December, by end of this year, ay umabot pa raw ng P38, P39,” he added. 

(By the first week of October, the provinces will have theirs...Grecon promised that rice prices will further drop to P38 or P39, hopefully by December, by end of this year.) 

In addition President Marcos' decisive action on rice tariff, Romualdez also cited the initiatives of the House, which included collaboration with rice traders, as a factor in the price skid of the staple food. 

“Together with PRISM and other stakeholders, we have been actively working to stop rice hoarding and price manipulation. I would like to commend the rice traders who have responded to our call to make rice affordable and available for everyone,” the Speaker said. 

It could be recalled that Romualdez led fact-finding missions to inspect rice warehouses in Bulacan, where instances of hoarding were discovered. These investigations, the Speaker noted, have been crucial in bringing unscrupulous traders to light and ensuring that rice stocks are released to the market. 

“The Marcos administration is committed to implementing long-term solutions, such as increasing domestic rice production, improving import regulations, and penalizing those involved in illegal trade practices,” said the House chief.