Image Courtesy of: House of Representatives of the Philippines (Facebook Page)

By: Junex Doronio Column

FIRST, HE LED the raid on the warehouses of gluttonous rice hoarders and now he is set to persuade the capitalists manufacturing canned goods and other essential food products to moderate their greed in the spirit of upcoming Christmas which is celebrated by Pinoys as early as September or the beginning of “ber” months.

“We will attempt to convince them to at least postpone their plans, if there are any, until after Christmas in the spirit of the Yuletide season. Masyadong mabigat sa bulsa ang sabay-sabay na pagtaas ng mga bilihin kasabay ng pagtaas ng presyo ng krudo,” PBBM’s first cousin Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez said.

It is not really far-fetched that some “profit-starved” capitalists who have no bleeding heart for the poor will take advantage of the oil price hikes and justify another increase in the costs of canned goods and other processed foods.

This time, the ordinary wage earners whose take-home pay can barely feed their family may have to resort to “toyo’t mantika” meals if ever the price of the cheapest sardines will be jacked up as a result of the series of oil price hikes.

With this scenario, Romualdez is seriously planning to convince food manufacturers to postpone until after Christmas their plans to increase prices of their products.

“Nauunawaan naman namin na maging sila ay apektado. But we will appeal to their sense of compassion and ask them if they can find a way to manage until Christmas,” Romualdez stressed, referring to the food manufacturers.

He added that he will also conduct a dialogue with supermarket associations to hear and consider their concerns.

The House Speaker, however, pointed out that the PBBM administration is doing its best to alleviate the situation of the people, “but what we are experiencing is a world crisis.”

“That’s why various agencies are ready to provide assistance because the government also feels the people’s predicaments,” Romualdez further said.

It can be recalled that last August 30, in response to complaints against rice hoarding, Romualdez led the Bureau of Customs (BOC) operatives in another round of surprise inspection of rice warehouses in Bulacan.

An estimated P519 million worth of imported rice and local palay were discovered sitting in four different warehouses in two Bulacan towns.

Prior to this raid, Romualdez also joined the BOC operatives in closing down three warehouses in Bulacan storing P505 million worth of suspected smuggled rice from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand during their operations last Aug. 24.

Many Visayans have expressed high hopes that another Visayan will succeed PBMM as the country’s Chief Executive and continue the legacy of a compassionate and strong leadership.

Romualdez hails from Leyte and could be the first Waray to become the country’s fourth Visayan president after Sergio Osmeña Sr. of Cebu, Manuel Acuña Roxas of Capiz and Carlos Polistico Garcia of Bohol.

Who knows?

As Ecclesiastes 9:11 of the Holy Bible said: “The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” (ai/mnm)