By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet
On Tuesday (Nov. 26), the chair of the newly formed House Murang Pagkain Supercommittee, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, lamented that the “biggest agricultural price manipulation case,” involving alleged rice importation anomalies during the Duterte administration that cost Filipino consumers billions, has remained unresolved.
The supercommittee was created through House Resolution No. 254, introduced by Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, to address critical issues in the country’s food supply chain, including price manipulation, smuggling, and hunger.
It brings together key House committees—Ways and Means, Trade and Industry, Agriculture and Food, Social Services, and the Special Committee on Food Security—to craft solutions aimed at ensuring affordable and accessible food for all Filipinos.
At the supercommittee’s inaugural hearing, Rep. Salceda stressed the need for accountability, on account of failures that let cartels exploit the country’s food supply.
“The biggest case of price manipulation in the agricultural sector remains to be the cornering of import permits in 2016-2018,” Salceda said.
The food supercommittee chief noted how the private sector’s control over rice importation and the manipulation of import permits during said period led to a significant spike in rice prices in 2018, with consumers paying up to P8 more per kilo.
The total economic loss was pegged at P88.6 billion, with Salceda noting that the abolition of the permit system administered by the National Food Authority (NFA) in 2019, fueled by the Rice Tariffication Law, was the only remedy that helped ease the issue.
Alleged P2-billion bribery issue at NFA also under scrutiny from food supercommittee
Rep. Salceda also inquired about the status of alleged P2-billion bribery issue within the NFA in 2018, where certain officials were identified in previous Senate hearings as being involved in the cornering of import permits.
The officials named include Marlon Barillo, Marigold De Castro, Richie Carpio, Mercedes Yacapin, Rocky Valdez, and Judy Carol Dansal, who was later appointed NFA administrator by then-President Rodrigo Duterte.
Salceda said that cartels also took advantage of the NFA’s diversion of palay procurement funds from supporting farmers to paying off loans.
“No one has gone to jail for allegations of bribery in obtaining import permits, or for the NFA’s failure to undercut cartels by diverting palay procurement funds to loan payments,” the Albay representative pointed out, looking for whereabouts of then-Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque’s pledge of filing charges in September 2018 against offenders.
The supercommittee chief requested the Committee Secretariat to send letters to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Ombudsman to determine whether any cases have been filed against government officials implicated in the Duterte-era rice price manipulation scandal.
He also requested a letter to the DOJ to confirm if a formal investigation was ever initiated into former NFA Administrator Jason Aquino.
In addition, Salceda called for letters to the NFA requesting a list of individuals and corporations that were granted rice import permits from 2016 to 2018, and to the Bureau of Customs for a detailed record of all rice import arrivals during the same period. (with report from Mela Lesmoras/PTV News)
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