
DA CHIEF HIT OVER MSRP
LAWMAKERS have lambasted the Department of Agriculture (DA), led by Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., for stubbornly insisting on a maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) of P58 per kilo for imported premium rice, despite mounting criticism from Congress and the public.
During a hearing of the House Quinta Comm or the Murang Pagkain Super-Committee, legislators condemned the price cap as excessively high, harmful to consumers, and a policy that emboldens collusion among rice retailers.
Members tore into the DA’s decision to maintain the P58 price while planning only gradual reductions to P55 in February and P49 in March.
They called the agency’s approach both ineffectual and out of touch with the realities faced by struggling Filipino households.
Quezon 1st District Rep. Mark Enverga, chair of the House Committee on agriculture and food and co-chair of the Quinta Comm, questioned the rationale behind the P58 MSRP, calling it unnecessarily high.
“The goal should be to influence the supply chain to reduce profit margins across the board,” Enverga pointed out. “But why are we allowing such a large markup? Shouldn’t we pressure everyone to adjust their profit margins instead?”
Enverga further criticized the DA’s plan to gradually lower the price, asserting that immediate reductions are more beneficial.
“If the MSRP can go down, then it should go down immediately. Why wait? Why allow additional profits for traders and retailers when prices can already be lowered?” he argued.
Marikina City Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo delivered an even sharper rebuke, calling the MSRP a direct enabler of anti-competitive practices.
She warned that the DA’s price ceiling effectively gives retailers a government-approved excuse to collude at high prices.
“Ang nangyayari is they (retailers) now collude around the higher MSRP. Sasabihin ng mga retailers, ‘Eh allowed naman pala ang MSRP na P58. O tayong lahat, magbenta na lang tayo at P58.’
Kahit na kaya naman pala nila magbenta at P38,” Quimbo said.
Quimbo also called out the DA’s flawed pricing formula, saying its reliance on unnecessary steps in the supply chain inflates costs that burden consumers. She urged the agency to adopt a more competitive and transparent strategy.
“Mag-monitor po kayo. Hanapin ninyo sa bawat lugar kung sino ang retailer na nakakabenta ng pinakamababang presyo,” she said.
Bulacan 2nd District Rep. Tina Pancho was equally unsparing, condemning the DA’s P58 price as fundamentally unfair to the Filipino people.
“Napakataas po nito. Parang ang nangyayari po, ang gobyerno ang nagbibigay ng pahintulot na ibenta ito sa mataas dahil ‘yun ang legal. So, hindi po talaga tayo bababa,” Pancho said.
Despite the mounting pressure, DA Assistant Secretary Genevieve Guevarra defended the agency’s pricing decision.
She explained that the P58 MSRP was based on global rice prices, freight, insurance and tariffs, and insisted that compliance in Metro Manila markets was high.
Guevarra said the DA intends to reduce the MSRP to P55 in February and P49 by March, subject to global price movements.
“The Secretary has declared that the plan is to lower it to P55 and then to P49 as long as world market prices allow,” she said.
Lawmakers rejected these explanations outright, asserting that the DA’s timeline is both inadequate and unacceptable.
The Quinta Comm, chaired by Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda, has demanded a full written explanation from the DA on the mechanics and computations of the MSRP.