Agriculture Secretary Piñol warned the rice traders about them allegedly hoarding and smuggling rice and blackmailing President Duterte.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol is making the traders realize the problem that will arise in the alleged hoarding and smuggling of rice in order to manipulate the price of food staple of the country.
Based on the report of ABS-CBN News, Piñol stated that rice traders can’t blackmail President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
He even added, “Don’t mess with this guy kung hindi ka preparadong makipag-away sa kanya.”
(Don’t mess with this guy if you are not prepared to fight against him.)
(Photo lifted from Food Evolution)
Piñol exactly stated that in his interview with DZMM according to the report.
Just recently, President Duterte has commanded the National Food Authority (NFA) to obtain rice from the local farmers of the country.
However, despite the order of the president, he said that he has received photos from the Malaysian supporter of Duterte.
The photos show vessels of Vietnam putting rice to ships going to the province of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Zamboanga.
In his statement, he even stated that he will suggest the president to create a task force. This task force, according to him, will monitor rice traders’ warehouses and to block if ever smuggling of staple will take place.
Piñol noted that the rice production for this year has increased, the reason why rice supply is sufficient.
The production for the last 3 months hiked up 4.14 million in metric tons which is, for the similar time last year, higher for 210,000 metric tons.
With suspension of importations, as mentioned in the report by Piñol for the possible betterment of the lives of the local farmers, the farmer’s earning during the 1st quarter of 2017 grew P23-billion.
The said estimated amount will be a big help to farmers in terms of their necessary needs and would eventually alleviate poverty in the countryside.