MANILA, Philippines — The government is going after hoarders and people diverting government rice stocks and selling them as commercial rice in an effort to ensure the stable supply of the staple grain in the market.President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Tuesday ordered a purge of unscrupulous traders of National Food Authority (NFA) rice by revoking the licenses of all 5,000 NFA retailers and the re-accreditation only of those qualified in the grains trade. To ensure enough supply and affordable food items in the country, the government will sell “critical” basic commodities like rice, pork and cooking oil in government outlets while encouraging manufacturers to come out with affordable goods like “Tinapay ng Bayan” and “bonus/econo packs.”
These were among several measures that Malacañang intended to undertake amid rising prices of rice and fuel in the global market, which Arroyo said were “putting more strain on our working poor.” “We are a price-sensitive nation,” the President acknowledged at the start of the Cabinet meeting at the Palace where she met with the National Economic Development Authority and the National Price Coordinating Council to ensure stable and affordable supplies of rice and other food items in the market. In her opening statement, Arroyo appealed to retailers not to jack up the prices of their goods "just because some people are saying there is a (food) crisis.” The chief executive was apparently taking a dig at some lawmakers and groups claiming that the country was facing a rice shortage and a food crisis. After the Cabinet meeting, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap brought along with him rice farmers from Pangasinan, Isabela, Cagayan and Nueva Ecija to reiterate that the supply of rice in the country was enough.
Yap urged the public to go out to stores, markets and groceries and find out for themselves whether there was indeed a rice shortage.
He said while the supply of rice in the country was enough, prices of rice were going up because of many factors: rising price of fertilizers and fuel, among others. “So while there is supply, the price is adjusting,” Yap said. Yap also said that the President instructed him to keep NFA rice at P18.25 per kilo as much as possible so that the public would have access to it. Arroyo instructed Yap as well to go after hoarders and those responsible for diverting NFA rice from government outlets. Yap told reporters that Arroyo has ordered the NFA to revoke all "passbooks'' of its 5,000 retailers for a re-accreditation of retailers. “We will issue new passbooks and we will be strict in implementing a one-retailer-one-passbook policy,” he said. The government will also re-license' all millers and palay traders to “ensure it has basis for the monitoring that will be conducted on them in the coming months,” according to the agriculture secretary. Yap said the revocation and re-accreditation were being done following reports received by authorities that one retailer would go to an NFA warehouse bringing along with him 20-50 passbooks and seeking the withdrawal of NFA stocks. From there, he said, authorities do not know where the NFA rice was being taken. /Inquirer | 
