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Manila: President Gloria Arroyo warned hoarders and profiteers they risked jail as she moved to check unrest brought about by soaring food prices.
"Anyone caught stealing rice from the people must be thrown in jail," said Arroyo as she overviewed the filing of criminal cases against 13 grain smugglers during a cabinet meeting she held at the justice department.
"I am leading the charge to crack down on any form of corruption," she said making particular reference to those "diverting supplies" or "manipulating the price of this essential commodity in any way".
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said the National Bureau of Investigation had filed criminal complaints against 13 rice and flour traders before the justice department on charges of hoarding, price manipulation, and violation of new rules of the grains business.
"Economic sabotage carries 50 years of imprisonment," Gonzales warned.
Calling the accused "rice and bread bandits," Arroyo said authorities would chase down "unscrupulous traders, together with their accomplices in the bureaucracy".
Sources said the president would soon name and shame government officials who had allegedly played into the hands of hoarders.
Outlining measures she had taken to stabilise rice supplies, Arroyo held a teleconference with local officials, priests and leaders of the Muslim community who had volunteered to help the government distribute subsidised rice.
Sufficient stock
A panic reaction was unwarranted, Arroyo said, adding that the government had secured imported and locally produced rice stocks to feed 90 million people.
The government had allotted one per cent of its revenues to import rice, which was being sold to the poor at nearly half the market price, she said.
However, deputy country director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Alghassim Wurie, warned that his agency would not be able to continuously subsidise more than a million people in Mindanao, in the south. An estimated five million people live in the conflicted region.
The 4,000 tonnes of rice in the WFP warehouse in the south would only last two months but replenishment of stocks would not be possible without additional funds, he said.
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