DA, PCC to investigate rice price manipulation

The Department of Agriculture and the Philippine Competition Commission are going to investigate the possible manipulation of rice prices.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar and PCC Chairman Arsenio Balisacan on Tuesday today signed a memorandum of agreement on information and resources sharing between the department and the commission.

“This situation today where, as a result of the Rice Tarrification Law, there came volumes of rice that have been imported. Already, I believe more than two million metric tons” Dar told reporters in a press conference.

“And at the same time, you see problems in some areas in the country where palay prices are going down. We feel it is necessary for us to cooperate, collaborate with the Philippine Competition Commission under the leadership of Chairperson Arsenio Balisacan, for the very purpose of, you know, appreciating why there is such … what we call management of imported products,” Dar said.

The Agriculture chief wants to know why rice prices have not really gone down despite the importation and the 3.4 million bags of rice released in the market approved by the National Food Authority.

“We don’t see it happening in the market—the outcome or the impact of more imports of rice. And that’s the reason this collaboration with the Philippine Competition Commission is very important,” Dar said.

“We will look at whether fair trade is happening, or is there some collusion between and among importers, traders, and millers,” the Agriculture chief emphasized.

Balisacan did not go into details of the planned investigation, other than giving out a general statement. “We will look at the parties involved. The Competition Commission is a quasi-judicial body, it has … investigative power.”

“What we want to understand in the case of rice, what we want to find out, is what explains the behavior of the prices as we are seeing this. And whether one could attribute that to anti-competitive practices like cartels or abuse of dominance of certain big player or certain price-fixing or market allocation,” Balisacan said. —VDS, GMA News