Du30 urged: Scrap pork tariffs to lower prices. Inquirer Newsletter. January 27, 2021

No images? Click here   PREPARING FOR THE JAB  The city government of Valenzuela launches its COVID-19 vaccination program on Tuesday by informing residents of the side effects of the vaccine. The information shown in the picture above is posted at Malinta Elementary School. The local government has designated 17 vaccination sites across the city. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA     World EU wants limits on vaccine exports BERLIN—Germany added its voice on Tuesday to calls by other European Union member nations to restrict the export of COVID-19 vaccines,  after manufacturers AstraZeneca and Pfizer announced supply cuts amid a massive inoculation drive across the continent. German health minister Jens Spahn said it was not about Europe wanting to be first but about it getting its fair share of the vaccines. —STORY BY REUTERS AND AFP Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/World   Regions What caused dolphin deaths? LEGAZPI CITY—Twenty-five dolphins were stranded on a beach in Del Gallego town in Camarines Sur on Tuesday but 13 died due to trauma that fisheries officials linked to blast fishing. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources said shock waves from the explosion could have caused the dolphin’s lungs to collapse, resulting in drowning. It noted blood oozing from dolphins’ eyes, mouth and ears. —STORY BY MAR S. ARGUELLES Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/regions   Newsletter / Join us Has this been forwarded by a friend? Subscribe now to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Newsletter and get your latest news and important updates on COVID-19 and the enhanced community quarantine. Subscribe   Know more     Banner story Du30 urged: Scrap pork tariffs to lower prices By Karl R. Ocampo A group of manufacturers of meat products on Tuesday asked President Duterte to remove duties imposed on imported pork to immediately cover a meat shortage in the country and bring down prices. The scrapping of import duties was one of three proposals made by the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (Pampi) in a letter they sent to the President through Agriculture Secretary William Dar. These emergency measures are apart from the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) own recommendation to increase the volume of imported pork that is now slapped with a 30-percent tariff. Once the DA’s recommendation is approved by the President, the country would be able to triple its pork imports under the minimum access volume (MAV) of 54,000 metric tons (MT) currently to 162,000 MT, Dar said last week. A 40-percent tariff will be imposed on imports in excess of that volume. Pampi proposed to bring in at least 50,000 MT of pork at zero tariff. This will encourage importers to procure more of the commodity and ease price woes, the group said. It urged the state-owned Landbank to provide financing or trade credit to hog raisers and producers as an incentive to increase production while grappling with the African swine fever (ASF), which continues to spread. Moreover, Pampi asked the President to allow the sale of frozen meat products in public markets until the current shortage eases. The DA prohibits frozen meat sales because most vendors in public markets do not have freezers. “[These measures are] intended to provide fiscal support to hog farmers and producers to afford them the opportunity to generate income and compensate for huge losses arising from the ASF decimation of their hog farms,” said Felix Tiukinhoy Jr., Pampi president. Easing import rules “Our recommendation, we believe, is a much better way of alleviating the plight of the hog sector at no cost to the government rather than giving them financial doleouts,” he added. Ramon Clarete, dean of the University of the Philippines’ School of Economics, said in an interview with the Inquirer that the most effective way to protect consumers from high pork prices was to ease import rules. He recommended a reduction of tariff on imported pork within and outside of the MAV to 5 percent. Clarete said a supply shortage “is addressed by giving incentives to suppliers to supply more.” If the government insisted on just expanding the MAV, it should be implemented with conditions, he said. Importers must ensure that the shipments arrive within a month and that delays will mean forfeiture of their given allocation, Clarete added. “We have so many suppliers and importers who can bring in pork, and that will give us better protection,” Clarete said. “Shortfall will be addressed quickly without need of price control.” On Monday, Edwin Cheng, president of the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines Inc., said 5.5 million hogs had died, or had been culled, since the ASF outbreak in 2019. Prices of pork had risen steadily from P250 to P270 in September 2019 and recently jumped to P350 to P400 per kilo, making it more expensive than beef, which is considered “luxury” meat by many. Dar admitted that the ASF had brought down the hog population in Central Luzon since early 2019, but he blamed traders and wholesalers for causing the spike in pork prices. “They are making a large profit margin of more than P200 per kilo, between the farm-gate price of live hogs and the retail price of pork in public markets. They are raking in a lot,” Dar said. According to the secretary, farm-gate prices range from P180 to P200 per kilo. Dar cited the case of hog raisers in Batangas where farm-gate prices range from P180 to P200 a kilo. This was the basis for the DA’s recommendation to impose a price control on pork of P270 for leg or ham cut and P300 for pork belly. Middlemen But industry groups say the farm-gate prices cited by Dar do not apply to most hog raisers. “In most provinces in Luzon, the farm-gate [prices are] currently between P240 and P250. If you add the cost to the ‘viajero’ (trader) and the reseller in the market, the rate they want to impose is too low,” Cheng said. The DA said Metro Manila consumers outraged by high food prices, especially of pork and vegetables, might soon be pacified by supplies coming from nearby provinces. Hog and poultry raisers, and farmers’ cooperatives and associations in Calabarzon and Mimaropa regions promised a supply stream to the metropolis, where food prices had risen by as much as 275 percent since last year. As of Monday, a total of 700 kilos of assorted vegetables and 2 MT of poultry meat had been delivered to Quezon City, while 612 heads of hogs had been shipped to Pasay and Muntinlupa cities for slaughtering and trading. More hogs are expected to be delivered from Palawan and Marinduque. Dar said 80 MT of vegetables were set to arrive at Juliana market in Balintawak, Quezon City, and more vegetables and poultry products could be expected in the coming days. The secretary said he was optimistic that these shipments would immediately cover the shortage and push down prices, which the DA believed were manipulated by unscrupulous traders. The DA had asked the help of the Philippine Competition Commission in probing traders and wholesalers suspected of manipulating supply and prices. It also partnered with the Department of Justice, Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Philippine National Police, and the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate, apprehend, and prosecute profiteers and manipulators. Dar warned that those who would be found guilty of jacking up prices could be fined up to P100 million. No one has been penalized though since the start of the pandemic and during the imposition of a price freeze by Mr. Duterte last November.   Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Editorial Pork barrel patsy? Largely unremarked is last week’s rejection by the Sandiganbayan of lawyer Gigi Reyes’ petition for temporary liberty. It suggests that the woman who in her heyday was known as "the 25th senator" will languish in detention for an indefinite period—unless, backed by her hotshot attorney Estelito Mendoza, she is able to convince the Supreme Court to grant her plea for a writ of habeas corpus and a "speedy, fair and public trial." Reyes, former chief of staff of former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile, has been held at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City since July 2014. She is in a prominent company of prisoners that include the pork barrel queen herself, Janet Lim-Napoles, and another lawyer, Richard Cambe, ex-chief of staff of Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr., except for one major difference: The two others have been convicted of the crime of plunder as Revilla’s correspondents; she is yet a suspect.   Reyes has sought temporary liberty a number of times—the most recent petition to the antigraft court citing the danger posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to her health and well-being—all to no avail. To think she was once a major force, privy to and/or instrumental in critical developments in the Senate by dint of her association with her ex-boss. Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, since gone on to that Congress in the Sky, publicly urged Reyes to spill the beans and turn state witness. Maybe she should, or she’ll just be a patsy, fodder for schadenfreude. Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net       Copyright © 2020 PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: P.O. Box 2353, Makati Central Post Office, 1263 Makati City, Philippines.   Share    Tweet    Share    Forward  Preferences  |  Unsubscribe