Speaker vows: Rice hoarders will end up in jail

MANILA, Philippines — Businessmen hoarding rice in a bid to manipulate prices and further profit will face charges and jail time.

“Rice hoarding is a heinous crime because it victimizes poor families who barely have enough money to put food on the table and pay for everything else that will uplift their quality of life. Hoarders profit from the misery of others, and for that they deserve to be in jail,” Speaker Martin Romualdez said on Wednesday.

Romualdez also called on Customs Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio to step up the government’s campaign against price manipulation of other basic commodities in the market, which include onions, garlic and tomatoes.

“That is why we challenged the Bureau of Customs to make the necessary raids of warehouses and arrest these smugglers and hoarders. I believe that by sending them to jail, we will send a clear message to other hoarders to stop what they are doing under pain and penalty of jail time,” he said.

“We are urging... Rubio to follow through with their efforts during their raids. This should result in the filing of criminal cases of economic sabotage against these opportunists. They have been raking in millions at the expense of the suffering of our people,” he added.

Romualdez recently joined the BOC and other lawmakers in raiding the Gold Rush Rice Mill 3, Dinorado Rice Mill and the JSS Rice Mill in Bulacan, which yielded around P500 million worth of imported rice.

President Marcos on Tuesday ordered government agencies to exhaust all legal tools to control the rising price of rice.