DAVAO CITY – A Partylist lawmaker on Wednesday blamed the sudden price increase in ginger to a “liberalized agricultural trading environment.”
Gabriela Women’s Partylist Representative Luzviminda Ilagan said the price of ginger in the past week has spiked to as much as P250-300 per kilo.
“Last year, the price of garlic and onion also saw similar increases reportedly due to smuggling and price manipulation by big importers and cartels,” Ilagan said.
“It is a direct result of uncontrolled importation and smuggling abetted by the highly liberalized agricultural trading environment, and this is a situation that is bound to get worse with economic Charter Change,” she said.
Ilagan said the House of Representatives should probe these sudden and unwarranted increases instead of pursuing Charter Change.
Resolution of Both Houses 1 (RBH1) seeks to amend the economic provisions of the Constitution.
Ilagan said removing the protectionist provisions of the Constitution “will give importers and smugglers more slack to import beyond limits, hoard, create shortages and manipulate market prices to the detriment of farmers and consumers.”
“It is important for congress to take a closer look at what plagues our agriculture, take concrete measures to arrest this and realize the destructive, damaging impact that RBH1 poses to our agriculture,” Ilagan said.
