Painful prices

The country is seeing crisis after crisis since COVID-19 hit last year. The latest? Soaring food prices that are further squeezing the finances of ordinary Filipinos already reeling from the economic impact of the pandemic.

The Department of Agriculture declared last Monday that the country is now under a state of calamity as the persistence of African swine fever in farms as well as the recent typhoons that devastated crops, coupled with alleged price manipulation among traders and resellers, have resulted in skyrocketing prices for pork, chicken, vegetables, and fruits. The DA noted that pork prices have risen by as much as 55 percent from last year, while vegetable prices went up by as much as 275 percent. According to an Inquirer report, pork is now sold at an average of P400 per kilo and chicken at P170 per kilo in public markets—prices that minimum wage earners, much less the millions left jobless by the lockdowns, can hardly afford.

The agency is eyeing a price ceiling of P270 to P300 a kilogram for pork and P160 a kilo for chicken, and is urging President Duterte to sign an executive order that would control the prices of these key food items. Hog and chicken raisers and supermarkets, however, have thumbed down the proposal, saying that the root of the problem is lack of supply. Former chief economist Ernesto Pernia also cautioned against the move, recommending that the government instead increase the available food supply either by importation or by helping local producers.

The country’s gross domestic product shrank 9.5 percent last year—blamed primarily on government policies in response to the pandemic, including one of the world’s strictest and longest lockdowns. Amid the worsening economic toll on ordinary citizens, Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua only stoked cries of insensitivity on the part of government when he said last Thursday during a briefing: “… No point in giving more fiscal stimulus, if for instance, there is no confidence or consumer confidence to spend. There’s no point in giving more subsidies, if the families cannot even go out and spend.”

But spend they must for everyday necessities, despite painfully high food prices. Now hard-pressed Filipinos have to tighten their belts even more. Tugon Kabuhayan, an agriculture and food safety advocacy group, has encouraged consumers to opt for fish as their protein source; it’s also cheaper, with bangus (milkfish) sold at P170 per kilo while tilapia is at P120 per kilo.

University of Asia and the Pacific economist Victor Abola separately suggested creating new vegetable-growing centers close to Metro Manila, such as in Rizal and Tagaytay, that could meet the demand for affordable food supply. An enterprising community in Angono, Rizal, was previously reported to have transformed a dumpsite into an ecological garden using compost materials generated from biodegradable waste. Residents recently harvested vegetables like “upo” (bottle gourd), “okra” (lady finger), string beans, and eggplant, which, aside from sustaining their nutritional needs, have also provided the residents with additional income.

Since last year, economists have repeatedly called on the government to focus on agriculture and aquaculture to help the country ease out of the COVID-19-driven crisis. Nonprofit research institution IBON Foundation said it is not too late to correct previous mistakes if only economic managers can focus on increasing spending in areas with high social and economic multiplier effects: “Rather than import-intensive big-ticket infrastructure projects, the economic managers can give more emergency cash subsidies, increase help to small enterprises to support job creation, and expand social services.” It also urged the government to pay more attention to agricultural productivity to help lower food prices, and ticked off the grim numbers: “There would not have been the 23.7 million additional hungry Filipinos, 4.5 million additional poor Filipinos, and 2.7 million additional unemployed Filipinos reported by the government if fiscal policy had been more aggressive…”

The Duterte administration knows the consequences of ignoring the sighs and mutterings of despair by consumers over runaway prices. The only significant slump in the President’s extraordinary trust and approval ratings over the last four years occurred over a similar gut issue: the spike in rice prices in August 2018, which, breaching 6.4 percent inflation—the highest in nearly a decade—led to his approval rating in a Pulse Asia survey the following month dropping 13 points, and his trust rating 15 points. Two years later, the country is in a practically devastated state compared to what now feels like those balmy pre-pandemic days, and relief—whether medical in the form of mass immunization, or economic in the form of greater social activity and mobility—seems yet far off in the horizon.