Thousands of netizens are rejoicing and lauding President-elect Rodrigo Duterte for what was touted as good news for everyone as “Duterte will make price of rice as low as 15 pesos per kilo.” If you heard this piece of news too, you will likely be among the thousands wishing for Duterte to make good on this promise.
So far, the said post has gained 5,500 reactions, 4,000 shares, and over 200 comments since it was posted on June 13. Scanning through the comment section, you’ll read about netizens thanking Duterte for paying attention to this problem, but there are also those who said that the focus should be on giving assistance to the farmers, who have to deal with the rising cost of fertilizer, insecticide, and other farming equipment.
Some also criticized this promise, saying how impossible this is if the Filipino farmers’ struggles are not even addressed up to now and how a drastic reduction in the selling price of rice will only worsen the farmers’ suffering, which makes sense.
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If you click through to read the article on the WorldViewsPH site, that’s when the confusion sets in!
What is this article trying to say? Will Duterte abolish rice imports or liberalize them? These are two different things.
By abolishing rice imports, it means the Philippines will no longer import rice.
However, even Duterte’s camp did not even say that they will stop importing rice. The incoming administration wants the country to become rice sufficient so as not to depend on rice imports, but they will still import rice until we achieve self-sufficiency. According to incoming Agriculture chief Manny Piñol, they cannot even put a timetable to that goal because it all depends on how much time it would take for his planned interventions to be implemented, but he promised that this goal will be attained during Duterte’s presidency.
The article also mentioned liberalizing rice imports, which is the opposite of abolishing imports since it means the restrictions over how rice is imported will be lifted. The point is that we will still be importing rice with this policy, which contradicted the article’s first claim of Duterte abolishing rice imports.
So in this sense, the article is totally contradicting itself, merely trying to catch the netizens’ attention with its catchy headline. Who wouldn’t be curious as to how Duterte is planning on giving Filipinos P15 per kilo of rice, something that will be a huge help to easing the financial burden on the masses.
But Did Duterte really say something about cutting the price of rice down to P15 per kilo?
Well, the article did say, “P15 yan lang dapat ang presyo ng isang kilong bugas. Mga pesti kayong smuggler,” says Duterte.
As hard as we tried, we could not find this Duterte quote from more credible news sources. You can even try Googling it yourself and the only article that you’ll find is the same WorldViewsPH site making this claim.
This site is a mere clickbait, trying to reel netizens in with its provocative headline. And while it is good to hope for good things like the reduction of the selling price of rice to happen in the country, taking advantage of that flicker of hope is just cruel.
Be Informed. Beat the Trolls, Share the Truth!
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