House of Representatives (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Ahead of the resumption of plenary sessions, House quinta-committee overall chairman, Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda has vowed to step up the joint panel’s efforts to lower the price of rice--the Filipino staple food.

This, as the economist-solon noted the alleged overpricing on local rice by supermarkets.

"We will intensify our fight to lower rice prices. As of the latest data from the Food and Agriculture Organization, global rice prices are at around USD 427 to 500 per metric ton, which means landed price should be at around P34-36 per kilo," Salceda said.

"One of the main drivers of the uptrend, we suspect, is overpricing by supermarkets, which sell on a per kilo basis at as much as P70 per kilo. This is unacceptable," he underscored.

The problem became clearer when Salceda highlighted the price of the competition, which is imported rice.

"The highest quality Thai indica rice is just at P41 per kilo once landed and imposed all applicable duties and taxes," he said.

"The representative of the supermarkets in the quinta-comm hearings made an incorrect assertion that consumer preferences are driving prices up. The Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) made a similar assertion on record. Clearly, based on import prices, even the best quality rice should not be at these levels," he explained.

Salceda also promised more no-nonsense hearings by the so-called Murang Pagkain Super-committee moving forward.

"I remind our resource persons that while I hesitated to cite invitees in contempt during the Christmas season, we are past that now," he said.

"The Department of Agriculture (DA’s) proposed rice price cap of P58 per kilo would also still give sellers a handsome profit of P17 to 23 per kilo, so we will look into the right price as well," he further said.

The quinta-comm will also see to it that prices of other basic goods remain low.

"As for meat, we will ask the DA to brief us on efforts to keep meat prices low. Corn is a top concern, outpacing general inflation by 2.1 percentage points last December. This pulls meat prices up," he said.

"We will also aim for long-term efforts to keep vegetable prices affordable and stable – so that surpluses are not harmful to farmers, while deficits are addressed," noted Salceda.

"The Speaker (Martin Romualdez) has reiterated his instructions to the quinta-comm to do all that it can to reduce food prices for Filipino families. My goal is to ensure that overall food prices do not exceed the 2-4 percent inflation goal of the government, at any time this year," said the Bicolano.