President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Saturday met with local officials in Tuguegarao following the devastation of super typhoon Egay in Cagayan and other parts of the country.

Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba said that as of July 28, the province has recorded 20 injuries from the typhoon. No fatalities have been logged so far. The typhoon destroyed at least 83 homes and damaged over 1,500 houses in in the province.

He said the agricultural damage in the province has reached over P539 million. These include rice, corn, high value crops and fishery. Damage to livestock also reached over P1 million as of July 28. Meanwhile, infrastructure damage in the entire province reached over P862 million.

Marcos said power and agriculture are main concerns in areas devastated by the typhoon.

“It looks like the main issue here is agri. Number one yung agri…Ang kuryente as you all know, pinapatay talaga yan at hindi binabalik hanggang mainspeksyon ang mga linya. Kasi pag hindi nila nainspeksyon at nagkamali sila, pag-on nila niyan at may short, sira ang buong sistema,” he said.

“Yung high-value crops mas madaling makarecover dahil ang cycle is 45 days. We will also provide for high value crops.”

He ordered local governments to send reports on agricultural damage.

“Ang hirap nito because yung palay, iniisip ko na ang supply natin pag nag El Niño talaga. I’m thinking about the national supply for rice because iniimport lahat ng Indonesia, nagsara ang Vietnam, India nagsara. We have to start importing already.”

Marcos said he is worried that even if the country imports rice, prices may still increase.

“Everybody is preparing for El Nino, lahat ng Southeast Asia. Sabay-sabay nagbibilihan. Kaya ninenerbyos ako dahil tataas nanaman ang presyo kahit nag-iimport tayo. That’s the problem that I see in the world. Pwede tayo magbigay ng binhi sa palay, mais and high value crops.”

Meanwhile, Senator Imee Marcos said she is worried that "the loss of the Cagayan Valley rice stock will impact the nation.”

While saving some of the damaged crops is possible, she suggested other measures including the replanting 45-day species of rice, as well as other vegetables that take a shorter time to grow.

“We should however be wary of planting corn before November as we are fully aware of floods and too much rain occurs before then,” she said.

Meanwhile, local Civil Defense official Leon Rafael said that while 11 people went missing due to the typhoon, teams deployed in Calayan-Camiguin areas have made breakthroughs.

“The seven crew members of the tugboat were found safe in Camiguin Island. So we are now monitoring them,” he said.

On Wednesday, a tugboat drifted off the coast of Aparri, which triggered search and rescue operations by the Philippine Coast Guard. The 4 members of the search and rescue team remain missing.

Full story here: https://tinylinkurl.com/Marcos-says-rice-prices-may-rise-amid-typhoon-damage-on-crops-El-Niño