Duterte: No need to fire Piñol, NFA execs amid rice crisis

President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday said there is no need to fire Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol, and National Food Authority officials amid the rice crisis in the country.

Before departing for Israel, Duterte noted that those officials have been "bounded" by laws that need to be followed.

"All officials including me are bound by laws on the matter —rice, whatever it is. There are laws to be followed. Maybe the laws are weak or unenforceable. All we have to do is to improve on those laws, not necessarily fire people," Duterte said.

"And I don’t see any serious offense there. We have not really lost anything except that there’s  ... aberration in the market," he added.

Some lawmakers have been calling for the resignation of Piñol and NFA administrator Aaron Aquino over the current rice problem. 

Around 330,000 sacks of rice were discovered to have been infested with rice weevils or "bukbok" at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Earlier, Piñol said there was nothing wrong with eating rice infested with "bukbok," as it only needed to be washed before cooking.

Meanwhile, Zamboanga City and Basilan have been placed under a state of calamity as rice prices soared to as high as P70-P80 per kilo.

Due to this, Piñol said he would propose to legalize rice smuggling in order to address the rice crisis in Zamboanga-Basilan-Sulu-Tawi-Tawi (Zambasulta) region as most people in the area have been dependent on smuggled rice.

Duterte, however, opposed the idea as this would only bring turmoil in the market. —Anna Felicia Bajo/LBG, GMA News