Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda (PPAB)

Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda says the government must put all the stops with the commodity of rice after the Philippines’ inflation rate jumped to 3.4 percent.

“If the government were to be obsessed with one thing, it must be rice,” Salceda said in a statement on Tuesday, March 5.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the country’s inflation rate grew six percentage points from 2.8 percent in January 2024.

This was described as a notable increase after four straight months of inflation rate slippages.

Salceda said other food prices, such as vegetable, corn, and sugar, and utility bills were down compared to last year’s prices.

Rice, however, was up to 23.7 percent on a year-on-year basis. Meanwhile, month-on-month inflation was at an elevated 1.0 percent

“Moving forward, the interventions of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Cabinet as a whole must be laser-focused on rice,” the economist-solon said.

“This will be a crucial thirty days, so we need all hands on deck,” he added.

The Committee on Ways and Means chairperson warned against increased rice importation as it “might not necessarily be the correct approach” at this time.

He instead advised to intensify importation around May, or during the time the 2024 Indian general election is expected to take place. This means that the political pressures linked to the rice export ban in India could ease by then.

Salceda say the DA should ensure that all post-harvest support is ready for immediate use by April. Logistic issues at the country’s ports, farm-to-market roads, and other potential supply bottlenecks should also be addressed, he said.

If the government manages to appropriately intervene with inflation’s effect on rice, then Salceda expects prices of the grain to stabilize by June.