MANILA (UPDATE) — President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on Wednesday lifted the price ceiling on rice, around a month after it was implemented.

The Philippines’ buffer stock for the staple grain is good for at least 30 days. With the harvest season, the country can further stretch the buffer stock to 70 days, Marcos Jr. said in a rice distribution event in Taguig City.

“I think it is the appropriate time. As of today, we are lifting the price caps on the rice,” said Marcos, who is concurrently the Philippine agriculture chief.

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The Department of Agriculture on Tuesday said the price cap could be lifted due to a drop in global prices of rice and an expected increase in supply due to the local harvest in the last quarter of the year.

Marcos in September set a price ceiling of P41 for regular milled rice and P45 for well-milled rice. The caps were as much as 25 percent lower than those quoted in Manila markets the week before.

Despite a "steady supply", Marcos alleged "hoarding by opportunistic traders and collusion among industry cartels in light of the lean season" were to blame for rising rice prices.

A ban on rice exports by major producer India, the war in Ukraine, and unstable world oil prices have also "caused an alarming increase in the retail prices of this basic necessity", he added.

Some economists have said that instead of setting price caps, government should make sure that harvests would be enough in the coming months. Some retailers said the ceilings also forced them to sell rice with little to no profit.

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The Philippines is expected to harvest 1.9 million metric tons of rice in October alone, the agriculture department said.

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TRADING FIRMS TO FACE RAPS

Cases will be filed against at least 4 rice trading companies for violating the customs, rice tariffication, and anti-smuggling laws, the President said.

“Hindi tayo papayag na patuloy na mamamayagpag ang mga nagsasamantala,” Marcos Jr. said, noting that life imprisonment and hefty fines await those who would be found guilty for hoarding rice.

“Binabalaaan ko ang mga nagsasamantala sa ating ekonomiya… tigilan na ninyo ang inyong masasamang gawain,” he said.

While the price cap on rice has been lifted, the government will continue its aid programs for farmers and fisherfolk, Marcos Jr. said.

“Kailangan pa rin natin ayusin ang agri sector, tulungan ang pinakamahirap. We will continue the assistance that we’ve been giving to farmers, to those most underprivileged families,” he said.

“Hindi pa din natin ma-control ang market. Kung may mangyari at ito ay maging mahirap sa certain sector of our society… We are going to continue and watch very closely kung sino ang tatamaan,” he said.

The administration has allocated P22 billion for the purchase of general dryers, cold storage facilities, and other farming equipment for underprivileged farmers, the President said.

House of Representatives leaders also agreed to create a rice aid program for poor families in the Metro Manila, where the staple grain is found to be most expensive.

“Ang problema talaga ay sa NCR. Dito mataas presyo ng bigas… That’s natural, dahil nasa city tayo, matagal bago makarating ang bigas,” he said.

Under the program, all 33 Congress representatives of Metro Manila will facilitate the rice aid to their constituents, the chief executive said.

The government has also been distributing P42 million worth of rice confiscated from the Port of Zamboanga in September.

At least 1,000 of the 42,180 sacks of smuggled rice were handed to beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program in Taguig City.

Some 200,000 sacks of rice in 4 separate warehouses in Bulacan, were also seized earlier.

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— With a report from Agence France-Presse