High price of rice results to more impoverished women, says Filipino research group

Urban poor organization Kadamay picketed outside the office of the Department of Trade and Industry in Davao City and condemned its failure to act on the sudden spike in prices of rice and other basic commodities like cooking oil and garlic. Prices are increasing while wage earners struggle daily surviving from what little wages they receive. (Photo courtesy of Kilab Multimedia)

MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / June 23, 2014) – The Center for Women’s Resources said women are hit the hardest with the unbridled rise in the price of rice, the Filipino’s staple food.

It said from June 2013 until recently, the price of regular milled rice in Metro Manila hit P40.00 a kilo – a P10 or 33% increase from its price last year.

High price increases were also recorded even in rice producing regions like Central Luzon (P8.00), Cagayan Valley (P9.50) and Central Visayas (P6.50). In typhoon Haiyan-stricken Eastern Visayas, the price is now at P42.00 per kilo.

“For a family of five consuming 1.5 kilos per day, the P10-increase means the shelling out an additional P450.00 per month. That’s equivalent to 10 days-worth of their rice consumption at P30/kilo price in June 2013. Dire poverty already pushed poor women and their families to eat rice not with a nutritious dish but with coffee, soy sauce, fish sauce or junk food.”

“With the surging price increase, more families will feed on a cheap junk food as substitute to an expensive rice meal,” Jojo Guan, CWR Executive Director, said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.

It said the Aquino government defended the increase as temporary because of the expected price adjustment during lean months. The government gives an assurance that the price of the staple will go down once the supply has stabilized, it added.

Guan explained that the price of rice and other agricultural products will remain uncontrolled as long as the Aquino government continues to implement the liberalization of trade and deregulation of prices. In compliance with World Trade Organization, the government has opted to import agricultural products rather than support the farmers to produce more rice and other products. In effect, local production remains limited and backward that could hardly provide for the needs of the people. 

“As an agricultural country, it is reprehensible that we become food-import dependent. This would not have happened if the Aquino government has the political will to revoke the neoliberal policies. So as long as the government follows the neoliberal framework, the price of rice and other commodities will continue to soar. As it is, women will continue to demand the Aquino government to bring the prices down and repeal the neoliberal policies, which cause the hunger of Filipino families,” Guan said.