Makati Mayor and senatorial hopeful Abigail Binay calls for government action against rice cartels and smuggling, emphasizing their detrimental impact on local farmers. She welcomes the declaration of a national food security emergency but stresses the need to eliminate middlemen for lasting price relief. Binay proposes direct government purchase of rice from farmers to curb price manipulation.
Makati Mayor and senatorial aspirant Abigail Binay said the government should go all out to stop the operations of cartels and rice smuggling that affects the livelihood of local farmers.Catching and prosecuting those involved in rice cartels and smuggling would prevent any price manipulation, Binay said.
“Rice prices would go down if the government directly buys rice products from local farmers, without going through middlemen.” Earlier, news reports said the proposed declaration of a national food security emergency would enable the National Food Authority to buy rice stocks from local farmers and sell them at a lower price.Last year, the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act was signed into law by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. It imposes stiffer penalties against smugglers and hoarders of agricultural food products, including cartels.
Violators of the law face a fine five times the value of smuggled or hoarded agricultural or fishery products, and life imprisonment if proven guilty.Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco is a grant recipient and fellow of 2017 media fellowship program by Probe Media Foundation Inc. She is a graduate of Bachelor of Mass Communication from the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila . After graduating in 2000 she immediately worked as a newspaper correspondent for Today Newspaper until 2005.
RICE Cartels SMUGGLING FOOD SECURITY NATIONAL EMERGENCY AGRICULTURE
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