Instead of ₱20 per kilo rice, Filipinos were greeted by ₱20 per piece of tomato at the start of 2025. Before the end of January, people will also bear 10% increases in the prices of 60 basic products, up to ₱2.70/liter in petroleum products, and ₱15 per trip in the LRT. These additional burdens come on top of previously announced electricity and water price increases and deductions from the salaries of SSS or Social Security System members. (See the related article “The US-Marcos regime brings catastrophic damage to the people,” Ang Bayan, January 7, 2025).

Worse than being inutile, the Marcos regime itself is responsible for the continuous increase in utility charges and price of goods, especially rice, which aggravate the Filipinos’ quality of life. Instead of boosting and supporting local rice production, it further allowed expensive imported rice to flood the local market. The policy of reducing tariffs on imported rice implemented in favor of large importers and rice smugglers is an utter failure.

Department of Agriculture officials themselves admitted in congressional hearings in December 2024 and this January how tariff reductions were ineffective in lowering rice prices. They said, the “landed cost” of imported rice decreased by up to ₱8 but the market price of imported rice remains over ₱50. Hoarding is widespread keeping prices high. As of December 2024, the average price per kilogram of well-milled rice is ₱54.97. This is 23.3% or ₱10 higher than ₱44.54 per kilogram in December 2023. Conversely, farmgate prices of local rice dropped by up to ₱10 per kilo during the same period.

The relentless increase in the price of food and other goods depressed the real value of the peso. As of 2024, the true value of one hundred pesos is only ₱79. Commodities worth ₱100 in 2018 now cost ₱121.

A third of the expenses of Filipino families go to food. Thus, the rate of inflation is actually higher among the poorest families. Any increase in prices, no matter how small, will steeply pull down their ability to buy and meet their basic needs.

Consecutive catastrophes

The impact of high commodity prices was further aggravated by the devastation caused by successive storms and the regime’s failure to meet the needs of disaster victims. The burden of imports was further exacerbated with the start of the cycle of one of the most intense El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) since mid-2023. In the first half of 2024, the El Niño tail end hit resulting in a severe drought in 12 provinces, damaging the livelihoods of more than 300,000 farmers in 17 provinces and destroying crops worth ₱15.3 billion.

The drought was followed by heavy rains, typhoons and the shearline (collision of hot and cold winds) rains which brought floods, landslides and swept away substandard bridges, roads and buildings. Eighteen typhoons passed through the country in 2024. Six consecutive typhoons struck on October 27, 2024-November 18, 2024, damaging property and livelihoods of 15 million people in 17 regions, the highest and most severe in Bicol, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon and Ilocos. These six storms damaged up to ₱21 billion in agriculture and infrastructure. The height of the typhoons forced up to 2.9 million people to evacuate.

According to the Pagasa agency, the onset of the La Niña phenomenon, which is the flip-side of ENSO, will bring 6-8 typhoons in the first half of 2025. La Niña results from abnormally cold ocean temperatures in the Pacific, which generates majority of bad weather.

Just this January, continuous rain and strong winds flooded many towns and farms in Eastern Visayas, Bicol and Davao. Like the millions devastated, many of them receive no help from the reactionary government to recover from the disaster.