Marcos meets with Agriculture execs

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. met with officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA) on Monday morning. 

Marcos sits as DA chief "at least for now" amid severe problems in the agriculture sector as well as to highlight the administration's "high priority" on it.

The inaugural executive committee meeting was scheduled at 9 in the morning.

“During the meeting, the President discussed with the DA officials and transition team urgent matters in the agriculture and fisheries sector including the food supply and demand outlook and important programs for the sector,” the DA said in a release.

"Improving the agriculture sector is a top priority for the President as he recognized that it will be critical to the country’s economic transformation," it added.

President & concurrent Secretary of the Dept of Agriculture @bongbongmarcos arrives at the Bureau of Soils & Water Management shortly before his closed door executive mtng with the dept heads at 9am to thresh out problems hounding the dept. He is welcomed warmly by the employees pic.twitter.com/aghhc4fTL5

— Mariz Umali (@marizumali) July 4, 2022

GMA News Online reached out to the DA for further details, but no response has been received yet as of this posting.

The country’s agriculture output contracted by 0.3% in the first quarter, following the 2.6% growth recorded in the fourth quarter of 2021.

During his campaign, Marcos Jr. said he would recommend a price cap on rice to reduce prices to as low as P20 per kilogram.

He has yet to provide specific details on the plan, which he later noted was an aspiration. He added that he has since talked to traders and asked them to freeze prices.

Latest data from the DA show that local commercial rice prices range from P38 to P50 per kilogram, and imported commercial rice from P37.00 to P50 per kilogram in Metro Manila as of Monday, July 4, 2022.

At the Palace briefing, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles was asked what Marcos' marching orders were for the DA.

She said the matter could not be speculated as the meeting was still ongoing at that time. No further details yet were given by the Palace. —KG, GMA News