President Marcos revealed that the country would have to import rice to compensate for the agricultural damages caused by the recent typhoons that hit the country in just three weeks.

Marcos said this as he led a situation briefing on the combined effects of typhoons Nika, Ofel, and Pepito in Quezon City on Friday, Nov. 15.

In an interview with reporters, the President admitted that the past six typhoons, which devastated several parts of the country in the past three weeks, caused massive destruction to the agriculture sector.

"In terms of food security, we’re alright. But marami talagang nasisira. Ang dami ng nasira na palayan, ang dami na nasira na tanim (Many ricefields and crops were destroyed). We will just have to compensate for that," he said.

According to Marcos, the Department of Agriculture (DA) informed him of a possible importation of around 4.5 million tons.

"The upper estimate is 4.5 [million tons] but we have already in place the prices of rice – imported rice has gone down significantly since last year. And we are not in competition like during the El Niño period," he said.

"During the El Niño period, tinamaan lahat ng ASEAN countries kaya’t tumaas presyo kasi lahat namimili. Titignan natin (all ASEAN countries were affected that's why the prices increased because everyone was buying rice. Let's see). Of course, we’ll do everything to control the price of the food, especially those products that have been damaged or destroyed by Pepito," he added.

The successive typhoons in the country caused around P7.039 billion in agricultural damages and losses in regions I, II, III, VI, VIII, XII, the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Calabarzon, Mimaropa, and the Bicol Region.

Data from the DA showed that as of Nov. 11, typhoons Kristine and Leon alone caused P5.89 billion worth of rice production losses while the volume of palay production losses was at 323,633 metric tons.

Typhoon Pepito is seen to bring heavy rains to several parts of the country starting Saturday, Nov. 16.