Smugglers and saboteurs

As our main staple, rice is the must-have basic food on every Filipino family table, rich or poor. It is so important that ensuring rice supply is a top priority in our country’s national security concerns.

Incumbent President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) has seen up close and personal the rice crisis in our country during the administration of his late namesake father. The long lines of people queuing to buy rice ration was a dear lesson that the young Marcos obviously carried in his memories. So much so it became his campaign promise in his May 2022 presidential run to bring down the price of rice to P20 per kilo.

It was at a time when the price of rice breached to more than P50 per kilo, especially for well-milled rice, both locally produced and imported. PBBM assumed in concurrent capacity as Department of Agriculture (DA) secretary when he first assumed office in June 2022. For more than a year, the presidential convoy motored to and from Malacañang Palace and the DA head office on Elliptical Road in Quezon City as he juggled both jobs.

PBBM finally appointed fishing magnate and long-time friend Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. to be his agriculture secretary on Nov. 3 last year. It was as good a time as any to have a full-time agriculture secretary to focus on the pressing problems and concerns on our country’s food security.

From artificial shortages of onions and other vegetable products to a new outbreak of African swine fever (ASF), the DA secretary has his hands full in his first year in office. This is not to mention crop and farm losses destroyed by typhoons and natural calamities that can disrupt the supply chain. On top of all these, the DA chief has to deal with man-made problems like bureaucratic maze and corruption in and out of the government involved in the agriculture sector he has to work with.

One of these is the very obvious orchestrated efforts to stop the price of rice from going down.

One of these efforts was Executive Order (EO) 62 signed by PBBM on June 21 this year that cut the tariff for imported rice from 35 percent to 15 percent. Issued during the congressional break when the Chief Executive can exercise legislative power to