MANILA -- The Philippine government has yet to perfect its system for importing rice because it has yet to accept that it can never be fully self-sufficient, an economist said Wednesday.

Speaking on ANC's Market Edge, University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) Senior Economist Dr. Bernardo Villegas said the way the Philippines addresses its rice supply issues is a "result of decades of wrong rice policy."

"Imports will always be necessary. But it’s very clear that we don’t know how to manage to import rice," he noted.

He said the country could have accepted early on that it could never be 100 percent self-sufficient in rice as it lacks Thailand's and Vietnam's access to rivers.

"If 20 or 30 years ago, we, like Malaysia, had set our so-called sufficiency level at 70-80 percent and always imported the rest, we would have perfected both helping our small rice farmers improve their productivity and all the mechanics of importing," he said.

He said that even with improvements in productivity, the Philippines "will never be able to reach the cost-effectiveness of Vietnam and Thailand."

"And so we have to accept the fact that we will always be importing some amount of rice, so that it will always be a two-edged sword approach," he said.

Villegas said imposed price caps on rice must eventually be lifted.

"Price caps, in the long term, never work. Because they actually will cause an artificial shortage, and then eventually, the prices will go up again," he said.

After slowing down for six months, inflation again quickened in August to 5.3 percent following increases in fuel and food prices, particularly rice.

• Inflation quickens to 5.3 pct in August as rice, fuel costs rise