A lawmaker stressed the need for policies that can help bring down commodity prices, particularly food prices, as the inflation in April remained unchanged from the previous month at 4.5 percent.
Marikina City Representative Stella Quimbo said the main contributor continues to be the inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages, which made up 40.9% of the overall inflation.
Quimbo said meat, particularly pork, had the biggest share of the food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation at 22.1%, and fish at 6%.
The lady legislator proposed authorizing the government to directly procure pork meat for purposes of price stabilization in times of emergency, such as the coronavirus pandemic, through House Bill 9256 or the Affordable Pork Act of 2021.
“The government can provide temporary support and buy high from producers and sell low to consumers.”
The lawmaker said the government can provide temporary support and “buy high” from producers and “sell low” to consumers to ensure that prices are fair and competitive by temporarily bringing supply directly to the market.
“At this point, our local production is struggling due to ASF (African swine fever). Hog raisers need to be able to sell at a price that’s reasonably high enough for them to recover costs,” she said.
“At the same time, we need to bring down retail prices for consumers… Naisalba na ang local industry, napamura pa ang presyo ng baboy (It will save the local [hog] industry, and help lower the price of pork),” Quimbo stressed.
She, however, noted that government intervention through procurement should only be done on a temporary basis, during this state of emergency.
“The bill also earmarks funds for measures against ASF.”
To improve the resilience of the local pork industry in the longer term, Quimbo said the bill also earmarks funds for measures against ASF and to develop the industry’s productive capacity, ensuring that they can withstand competition from cheaper imported meat.
“I call on my colleagues in government to support these measures. Inflation has been averaging a high 4.5 percent from the start of the year to present, but we can very well act swiftly to stabilize commodity prices moving forward,” she concluded.