Rice Price Cap Hurting Retailers in Cebu City

Government officials inspected in Cebu City the price ceiling imposed by President Bongbong Marcos Jr. on rice products.

There were no violators found in Carbon Market, the biggest public market in Cebu City, as prices of well-milled and ordinary rice are pegged between P41 to P45 per kilo.

Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Terence Calatrava led the inspection of rice stalls at the Carbon Market in Cebu City as well as in the City of Mandaue.

“We are here to monitor and implement the Executive Order No. 39 of President Bongbong Marcos Jr. on the price cap of rice,” Calatrava said in an interview with reporters.

“We are going around right now to check the prices if they are able to implement..,” he said. “So far it is okay, they are compliant with the prices of P41 and P45”.

But small retailers in Cebu City hope that the government will soon lift the price cap imposed on rice claiming they are already on the loosing end of the new scheme.

According to rice retailer Erwin Goc-ong Jr., they bought rice for 50 pesos per kilo imported from Vietnam but has to sell them for a price of only P45 per kilo because of the price ceiling.

Goc-ong is one of the lucky first batch of retailers who will get a P15,000 subsidy from the government under the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Sustainable Livelihood Program–Economic Relief Subsidy (SLP-ERS).

Only 8 rice retailers were given the P15,000 subsidy for Cebu City. Four are from the Carbon Public Market and the four others are in the public market in Guadalupe.

There are at least 40 rice retailers in Carbon alone.

The government has announced that there will be a total of 89 rice retailers who will be given the subsidy for the entire Central Visayas region composed of the provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor.

Government officials said that this will only be the first batch of recipients of the subsidy.