(Eagle News)–President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday, Sept. 2, warned rice traders he would not hesitate to use his emergency powers if they resort to illegal practices such as rice 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. And I will just get your—subject of course to just compensation,” Duterte said in a speech prior to his departure for Israel.
The President made the pronouncement amid what some have dubbed as a rice crisis in Mindanao.
Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol said residents of Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Basilan and Zamboanga City–which he said have for years relied on smuggled rice allegedly coming from Vietnam and Thailand—have had a difficult time looking for rice recently following a crackdown on smuggling.
Piñol said that last week, Zamboanga and Isabela in Basilan declared a state of calamity because of the high prices of rice.
He said the rice crisis ended in Zamboanga after new stocks from farmers’ cooperatives arrived.