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Arroyo orders crackdown on Philippine rice hoarders

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered a crackdown on rice hoarders on Tuesday as her administration tried to blunt the impact of rice shortages that could fuel public unrest.

Arroyo also appealed to traders not to artificially raise the price of rice, the country's staple food. The price had risen by nearly 50 percent since January, official statistics indicated.

Prices for prices of oil and basic household commodities have also soared.

In her directive, Arroyo ordered Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to "go all out against rice hoarders to ensure that cheap government rice ends up on the tables of the intended consumers -- the country's poor."

Yap "is staking out all NFA [National Food Authority] warehouses so he can follow the big 10-wheeler trucks and see where they are bringing rice," the president said.

The NFA runs the government's rice subsidy program. It buys rice from farmers locally and abroad and sells it to the public at a cheaper price.

But officials said some traders had been buying the subsidized rice and stockpiling it to sell months later at higher prices. This practice has made shortages worse as demand has grown, they say. The government estimates that the country's population, 85 million, will reach 94 million by 2010.

The Philippines, once Asia's leading rice producer, is now its leading rice importer, economic research group the Ibon Foundation said. Last year, the Philippines imported 1.8 million tonnes of rice, or 16 percent of its requirement -- mainly from Vietnam and Thailand.

Earlier this month, Arroyo asked Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to commit to export 1.5 million tonnes to the Philippines. Vietnam pledged only 1 million tonnes, officials said.

And last week, amid reports that government rice inventories were thinning, Yap suggested that fast-food restaurants cut rice servings in half to limit consumption and waste. The government said 25,000 bags of rice were wasted daily.
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