Warehouse owners and traders in the Philippines found to be hoarding rice will be charged with "economic sabotage" which carries a life sentence, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said yesterday.

The warning was issued by Gonzalez yesterday as Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco called on the public to report any trader hoarding rice, or rebagging National Food Authority rice to be sold at commercial rates.

Anyone with information on such activities can report to the NFA or the Office of the Governor so that action can be taken, he said.

Zayco said such moves are needed to help arrest the increase in rice prices.

NBI Bacolod chief Mamerto Cortez also said his office will closely coordinate with the provincial NFA office in the campaign to prevent rice hoarding. We will wait for instructions from the NFA on assistance it may need, he said.

Gonzalez said government agents had started swooping down on illegal rice traders in Cebu City and that 111 other traders in Luzon island were also on his list.

Evidence was being gathered against unscrupulous traders, who would be charged with "economic sabotage", which is punishable by life imprisonment, Gonzalez said.

"Our first initiative is to ask for the help of the Filipinos who can give us information because we are not here to witchhunt," Gonzalez said.

He said he had ordered agents from the National Bureau of Investigation to be “very rigid” in looking for evidence.

President Gloria Arroyo ordered the raids on rice hoarders to help avert a rice shortage.

She has also ordered huge imports of rice from neighboring countries like Vietnam and Thailand, and cancelled permits to rice dealers re-selling state-subsidized rice to avoid artificial price hikes.

Gonzalez said only rice hoarders were being targeted, and that traders and warehouse owners found to be legit need not fear.

"This is an emergency situation, they should understand," he said.

Malacañang, in a press statement yesterday, also announced that President t Arroyo has increased the farmgate price of palay from P12 to at least P17 a kilo or a 42 percent increase.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the President has ordered the NFA to match the commercial buying price of palay in the different regions using a credit line from Land Bank of the Philippines for its palay buying program.

Earlier, the President had ordered the release of P1.5 billion to boost rice production to avert a shortage of the staple amid a tight supply of the cereal in the world market.

The government has mapped out plans to increase rice production, including the use by local government units  of part of their budget surplus of more than P30 billion for food security in their localities; spending more on irrigation because 3,000 hectares of irrigated land need to be repaired; and boosting the distribution of hybrid palay seeds to farmers at a subsidized rate, among other agricultural programs, the press release said.

Zayco and Provincial Agriculturist Igmedio Tabianan of Negros Occidental Order are attending a Food Summit organized by the DA in Pampanga today.

Arroyo has also ordered all state universities and colleges  to make their gymnasiums available for use as rice warehouses and all the lands SUCs teaching agriculture as farm demonstration labs to bolster the administration’s food security and stability program, it said.*CPG/AFP

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