Authorities here on Tuesday began enforcing the price ceiling on regular and well-milled rice in compliance with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s Executive Order No. 39.

To ensure that rice inflation is arrested, the City Council is enlisting the assistance of national government agencies to help in enforcing the price caps of PHP41 per kilo for regular milled rice and PHP45 pesos per kilo for well-milled rice.

During the council’s 60th regular session on Monday, the body approved a resolution filed by Councilor Elgin Damasco, urging the Philippine National Police, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry to help ensure compliance with the price ceilings.

“Since the EO is already in effect, there is nothing left to do but implement it (price ceilings),” Damasco said in Filipino.

He hoped that his resolution would harmonize the efforts of all relevant agencies tasked with the enforcement of price controls.

Damasco said the council is discussing the price ceilings’ possible effects on the city’s rice traders.

Councilor Modesto Rodriguez II, who owns a rice farm and employs farmers, was among those who voted in favor of Damasco’s resolution, even as he noted that the spike in prices of well-milled and regular variety rice was due to the high production cost.

“Traders more or less buy palay from us at PHP20 per kilo… sometimes they even twist our arms to sell it at PHP17 per kilo. At those prices, rice farmers don’t stand to make any money, and in fact, we may be losing,” he said in Filipino.

Rodriguez reiterated that if the price was brought any lower, it would negatively impact more farmers, adding, however, that they could not stop production without bringing in scarcity to food markets. (PNA)