{"id":179758,"date":"2018-09-02T22:56:50","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T02:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=179758"},"modified":"2018-09-02T22:56:50","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T02:56:50","slug":"prrd-warns-using-emergency-powers-vs-rice-hoarders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/09\/02\/prrd-warns-using-emergency-powers-vs-rice-hoarders\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD warns using emergency powers vs. rice hoarders"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Wednesday said that he was \u201csad\u201d to let go of some government officials he appointed because of alleged corruption or misconduct, especially those who supported his presidential campaign. (ACE MORANDANTE\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Sunday warned rice hoarders not to test his patience saying he would not hesitate to exercise his emergency powers against them amid the country\u2019s rice woes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I\u2019m just warning the traders,\u00a0lalo na ang tiyan ng Pilipino<\/em>\u00a0(especially if it concerns the stomachs of Filipinos), do not force me to resort to emergency measure,\u201d Duterte said in a press conference at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 shortly before leaving for his official back-to-back visit to Israel and Jordan from Sept. 2 to 8.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he will even ask law enforcement authorities to go after them by raiding their warehouses since he will not allow Filipinos to \u201cgo hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKung may nakita ako na<\/em>\u00a0(If I see any) hoarding, I will not hesitate to exercise the powers of the President and I will ask the military and the police to raid your warehouses, bodegas,\u201d Duterte said, assuring that it was subject to just compensation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can do that, and I said you force me, I will,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

No to legalized rice smuggling<\/strong><\/p>\n

The President, meanwhile, rejected the suggestion of Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Emmanuel \u201cManny\u201d Pi\u00f1ol to legalize rice smuggling as a solution to the country\u2019s dwindling rice supply.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe smuggling itself? No, of course not, that will be destructive to the economy. You\u2019d put down in the market in turmoil,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Pi\u00f1ol earlier said he will ask the National Food Authority (NFA) Council to legalize the smuggling of rice by establishing a rice trading center in Tawi-Tawi where government can address the country\u2019s rice crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmuggled rice unrestrained? That would promote disorder in this country,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

According to Duterte, smuggled rice will be confiscated but can either be distributed for free or sold in lower prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, those smuggled rice have not paid any taxes or tariff, or whatever. So, they are confiscated, at disposal of the government and maybe I shall distribute it for free or go down to the last prices, prevailing market prices,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

He was open to the idea of selling smuggled rice at a lower price which Filipinos can afford.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we can import and lose…i-import natin,\u00a0ipagbili natin<\/em>\u00a0(let\u2019s import and sell it) at a price that\u00a0malulugi tayo, pero<\/em>\u00a0(we\u2019ll lose but) we\u2019ll peg it at a price that the Filipino can afford,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can lose but not allow smuggling in this country. It\u2019s the other way around.\u00a0Mag-import tayo tapos magpalugi na lang. At least meron tayong benchmark kung magkano ang maubos ang pera natin<\/em>\u00a0(Let\u2019s import then lose. At least we have a benchmark how much money we\u2019ll be losing),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

No need to fire Pi\u00f1ol<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite mounting calls for the resignation of Pi\u00f1ol and officials of the National Food Authority (NFA), Duterte said that there was no need for him to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, all officials including me are bound by laws on the matter. Rice, whatever it is, there are laws to be followed. Maybe the laws are weak or unenforceable. All we have to do is to improve on those laws, not necessarily fire people,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said those calling for Pi\u00f1ol\u2019s resignation only had to wait until he runs for senator in the 2019 mid-term elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cHintayin na lang ninyo<\/em>\u00a0because October, I think Bello (referring to Pi\u00f1ol) is going to run for senator, there\u2019s no need to fire him. You just wait, September, October,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I don\u2019t see any serious offense there. We have not really lost anything except there\u2019s an aberration in the market,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque earlier said the DA chief still continues to enjoy the trust and confidence of Duterte.<\/p>\n

Roque has also assured public that the country\u2019s rice situation is expected to normalize this month as soon as the main harvest starts to come in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Sunday warned rice hoarders not to test his patience saying he would not hesitate …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":161007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}