Former President Rodrigo Duterte (L) and Vice President Sara Duterte. | PHOTOS: Screengrab from ICC and official Fb web page of Inday Sara Duterte
TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte — It’s “ironic” for Vice President Sara Duterte to mock the Marcos administration’s efforts to deliver down rice costs to P20 per kilogram when her father’s regime had rice priced at P70 per kilogram, Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong mentioned on Sunday.
In a press release, Adiong additionally mentioned that former President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration even bought rice that was infested with weevils, or bukbok, which former Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol mentioned was suitable for eating.
At one level in the course of the Duterte administration, rice costs surged from P50 to P70 in some areas, forcing cities like Zamboanga Metropolis to declare a state of calamity. In August 2018, Piñol denied it, however he finally admitted that rice costs went as excessive as P80 per kilogram in Tawi-tawi.
READ: Piñol: No P70 per kilo rice in Zamboanga Metropolis
“It’s ironic that the Vice President is mocking efforts to decrease rice costs to P20 per kilogram when, in the course of the administration of her father, rice costs even soared to P70 per kilo in some areas,” mentioned Adiong, an assistant majority chief of the Home of Representatives.
“It was underneath the Duterte authorities that we noticed imported rice shipments infested with bukbok, when her father’s appointed Agriculture Secretary, Manny Piñol, oversaw rice importation. Earlier than pointing fingers, it could be higher for her to look again on the failures of the administration she proudly represents,” he added.
Adiong’s statements got here after Vice President Duterte, in an ambush interview in Negros Occidental final Wednesday, criticized President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration for promoting P20 per kilogram rice in Visayas throughout an election season.
In accordance with Duterte, this system comes “too late,” including that the Marcos administration is simply resorting to rice subsidies as a result of they know that Marcos’ Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas slate performs badly in Visayas.
“You recognize that’s only for the elections and for his or her senators who’re a part of their alliance to win,” she mentioned in Filipino.
“I don’t know what their motive is. However sure, they’re tricking the individuals with that P20 per kilo of rice. And you’ll be confused why Visayas solely, aren’t the individuals from Luzon and Mindanao hungry additionally? […] Possibly they’ve issues with votes from Visayas,” she added.
The P20 per kilogram rice was Marcos’ marketing campaign in the course of the 2022 elections when his Uniteam tandem with the Vice President was nonetheless alive.
Final Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. introduced the supply of P20 per kilogram of rice in Visayas by means of the federal government subsidies meant to shoulder larger market costs.
READ: DA will begin promoting rice at P20 per kilo – Tiu Laurel
Adiong mentioned Vice President Duterte ought to simply help initiatives that search to ease the individuals’s burden.
“Reasonably than criticize, the vice chairman ought to help each effort that goals to supply aid to the Filipino individuals, particularly when it includes making fundamental requirements extra inexpensive,” Adiong mentioned.
“What a frontrunner ought to do, if she or he actually cares for the individuals, is to help steps to make individuals’s lives snug, to not hit on initiatives that assist them,” he added. “We ought to be working collectively to search out options, not tearing down each try just because it comes from one other administration.”
Alyansa candidates like former Senate president Vicente “Tito” Sotto and Makati Mayor Abby Binay additionally opposed Vice President Duterte’s recommendations.
Throughout a press briefing in Pangasinan final Friday, Sotto requested Duterte the place she desires the funds to go — to rice subsidies that may profit individuals or the pockets of corrupt officers?
“There’s a saying that it’s higher late than by no means, proper? And perhaps they did not determine this out instantly,” Sotto mentioned. “As I mentioned earlier, there have been considerations in regards to the authorities shouldering subsidies for rice. So what? That ought to be the case, as a result of that’s taxpayers’ cash, it ought to be consumed by the individuals additionally.”
“As an alternative of being given to the corrupt solely, proper? The place do they need the funds to go, to the pockets of corrupt officers? Allow us to give that subsidy to our individuals in order that they’d not go hungry and to scale back costs of products,” he added.
Binay, then again, mentioned the federal government is being criticized no matter it does, even when it offers options to issues. Each Sotto and Binay additionally disputed Duterte’s claims that they’re performing badly in Visayas.
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