00:00 "I'm happy because what I used to buy was cheap, around 35 pesos per kilo.
00:10 Now, it's around 55 pesos per kilo."
00:17 Tatay Jaime used to buy no less than 5 kilos of rice, but now he can only afford two.
00:23 Shane, a rice retailer, says the same goes for her other customers.
00:27 But she's starting to make more money.
00:29 "Now, we have a source of income from selling rice. Unlike before, it's only 2 pesos."
00:37 But in Rosario's case,
00:39 "It's still pesos. It's not that cheap."
00:42 for a markup of 1 peso per kilo, Rosario gains about 500 pesos for 15 sacks sold per day.
00:50 Her overhead, however, is almost a thousand pesos.
00:54 "The price of rice is not steady. When it rains, the price of rice really drops.
01:03 I hope it drops."
01:06 Agriculture senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiba notes the slight dip in rice prices is not enough.
01:15 They recommended to President Marcos to keep the price ceiling until October.
01:20 Even with the price cap, the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura says farmers are already earning from a farm gate price of 20 to 23 pesos.
01:30 "We want to keep the price cap so that the farmers can have a stable income.
01:36 Because traders and millers are based on 23 pesos."
01:45 Panganiban also says the cap may be removed if rice prices drop to 38 per kilo.
01:52 This means a kilo of palay should only sell for 19 pesos.
01:57 Former DA Chief Leonardo Montemayor says farmers will again lose if farm gate prices drop below 20 pesos.
02:05 "The farm gate price will not go down if the President says that's the price cap."
02:11 "I respectfully disagree with the position of Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban.
02:18 The DA shouldn't be the ones at the forefront of pushing for continuation of the price cap.
02:28 It's wrong."
02:30 Montemayor adds palay prices are already expected to go down with more supply.
02:35 He says there's no point to keep the price ceiling after the National Food Authority raised the buying price for palay.
02:42 "On the one hand, we want to raise the price of palay for our farmers.
02:47 But if there's a price cap, it will go down at a time when because of the main harvest, without government intervention by the NFA, the price of palay will really go down."
02:58 Farmers say officials should focus on running after hoarders if the government really wants to bring down rice prices.
03:05 Kari Kay Tor, CNN Philippines.
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