Food & Beverage

Sardine price request meets 7.2% inflation

Canned sardine makers asked for higher prices as September inflation hit 7.2 percent and food inflation 6.8 percent, while the trade department insisted staple supplies were adequate. Vice President Sara Duterte's denial of a Jollibee franchise kept the brand inside a national political story.

By the MMI Food & Beverage Desk

Canned sardine manufacturers formally asked for higher prices on October 18, citing expensive production costs, and the request landed on the cheapest protein in the Filipino pantry at a moment when the government's own statistics show food inflation running at 6.8 percent. The same weekend, a Reddit post in r/phinvest that charted weekly WTI crude oil prices and cited September headline inflation of 7.2 percent, up from 6.1 percent in August, drew 129 upvotes and 31 comments from readers comparing grocery bills. Television carried the parallel official line: the Department of Trade and Industry said on October 15 that stocks of canned goods, noodles, milk and bottled water were sufficient, and by October 18 San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora had opened a DTI rolling store at the city hall atrium selling goods at lower prices.

The loudest single brand moment of the weekend had nothing to do with prices. Vice President Sara Duterte denied on October 17 that she owns a Jollibee franchise, after Rappler reported that government documents describe the Jollibee branch on Bolton Street in Davao City as owned by GenCorp Industries Inc., a company she declared in her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth. A DZMM Radyo Patrol 630 Facebook post carrying the denial drew 175 laugh reactions against 35 likes and 67 comments. YouTube commentary on the denial drew 38,277 views and 1,506 likes on one channel's October 18 video, and 22,654 views on a second asking whether the receipts undermine her. Rappler stood by the story, saying it rested on Duterte's own disclosure that she is a GenCorp stockholder and on testimony from financial forensic expert Alex Cabrera, and answered her charge of disinformation: "If these, in the Vice President's view, do not make for factual and responsible journalism, then we do not know what does".

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