April 15 (Bloomberg) -- The Philippines, the world's biggest rice importer, intensified efforts to crack down on hoarding as prices rose to a record and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc said the president's popularity may be undermined by food inflation.

The Southeast Asian nation would target ``unscrupulous traders together with their accomplices in the bureaucracy,'' President Gloria Arroyo said today. ``We have already taken steps to protect our consumers from rice and even bread bandits.''

Governments across Asia are battling record rice prices amid concerns that surging food costs will fan social unrest, stoke inflation, and undermine efforts to alleviate poverty. The global food crisis has reached ``emergency proportions,'' United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said yesterday.

President Arroyo's popularity could be put to the ``test if prices and availability of rice does not improve,'' Royal Bank's Sanjay Mathur and Euben Paracuelles wrote in a report. Subsidized rice accounts for ``only 10 percent'' of consumption, they said.

Rice futures, which have doubled in the past 12 months, traded at a record today in Chicago after a report that U.S. planting this year lagged behind the rate in 2007. The grain is the staple food for about half the world's population.

``We hope their efforts to crack down on hoarders work,'' said Benny Capinpilan, 30, who earns 10,000 pesos ($239) a month as a messenger in Manila, the Philippine capital. ``That will only matter to people like us if it will help boost supply.''

Lower Stockpiles

Rice prices have jumped on concern among importers and investors that there's a shortage of the commodity on the international market, and declining global stockpiles. Less than 10 percent of global rice production is traded.

Long queues in the Philippines to buy rice at state-set prices ``tells you what the supply situation is really like,'' Capinpilan said in an interview. Rising food prices meant he and his wife get to eat meat dishes only once a week now compared with three times a week a year ago, Capinpilan said.

The Philippine National Bureau of Investigation, which has raided warehouses to gather evidence against traders suspected of hoarding, plans to file complaints with the Department of Justice today, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales said this morning.

``Some traders have not only curbed the flow of supply in the domestic market, but have controlled the prices,'' Gonzales said by phone. ``We don't have a supply problem, they just take advantage of the perceived shortage.''

Rice producers including China, Egypt, Vietnam and India, representing more than a third of global exports, have cut overseas sales this year to safeguard local supplies. That's prompted importing nations, including the Philippines, to ``rush'' to agree to contracts.

`Mad Rush'

``The mad rush for rice has exacerbated the situation,'' Vishnu Varathan, a regional economist at Forecast Singapore Pte, said by phone

The potential for political tensions ``is most precarious in the Philippines,'' wrote Mathur and Paracuelles in the Royal Bank of Scotland report, which was dated today and also covered India and Indonesia. ``Owing to the acuteness of the rice shortage, the Philippine government has cut the availability of subsidized rice.''

The country's National Food Authority sells rice at 18.25 pesos a kilogram. Prices of uncontrolled, regular milled rice have gained 41 percent to 34 pesos a kilogram on April 12, from 24.07 pesos at the end March 2007, according to Bureau of Agricultural Statistics data.

`Public Perception'

The Philippines' rice ``supply is secure for the foreseeable future'' after the government bought 1.2 million tons in tenders between December and March, President Arroyo said today.

The president's popularity rating dropped to negative 27 percent in a survey done between March 28-31, from negative 16 percent in December, according to a survey by Social Weather Stations, a pollster, that was released on April 14.

The survey, done on a sample of 1,200 adults across the country, showed the poorest were most dissatisfied with Arroyo's performance. Her popularity among the poor dropped to negative 37 percent in March, from negative 25 percent in December, according to data on the the group's Web site.

``Running after hoarders may help ease the supply situation,'' said Varathan, the Forecast Singapore economist. ``That's very important, especially with public perception.''

The UN secretary-general said the ``rapidly escalating crisis of food availability around the world has reached emergency proportions,'' echoing a recent warning from Dominique Strauss- Kahn, managing director of the World Bank.

There was a pressing need to ``avert starvation in many regions across the world,'' as well as increase global grain output, Ban said in New York, according to a statement.

Rice for delivery in May on the Chicago Board of Trade gained as much as 2.2 percent to $21.90 per 100 pounds today, and traded at $21.89 at 5:13 p.m. Singapore time. Wheat and corn futures have also surged to records this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Manila at ljavier@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 15, 2008 05:35 EDT