RETURNING senator Francis Pangilinan stressed the need to crack down on cartels that were pushing up the market price of rice.
Pangilinan made the remark after he joined Sen. Risa Hontiveros in inspecting the prices of rice and other goods at Muñoz Market in Quezon City.
"There is really a need to dismantle these abusive groups that keep the price of rice high," he said in Filipino.
Pangilinan reiterated his commitment to finding solutions to bring down prices of rice and other goods if he regains a Senate seat in the May elections.
He said a decisive, no-nonsense crackdown on profiteers is key to addressing rice price hikes.
Pangilinan noted that as food security secretary of the late President Benigno Aquino III from June 2014 to September 2015, he helped bring down the price of rice.
"We were able to do that before. We ran after the unscrupulous traders. We fixed the importation process. We rejected the purchase of Vietnam and Thai rice at high costs," he said.
Within one year, Pangilinan said they brought down rice prices by as much as P3 per kilo and reduced rice inflation from 15 percent to 0.8 percent.
This also resulted in the lowest nationwide inflation rate in 20 years, he said.
Pangilinan noted that some stalls at Muñoz Market were selling Pakistani and Myanmar rice at P40 and P45 per kilo, cheaper than the Thai and Vietnamese rice imported by the government at P50 to P55 per kilo
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