House Speaker Gloria Arroyo on Sunday called for the proper implementation of the Rice Tariffication Act that would lift import restrictions on rice to ensure that it would not be disadvantage farmers and the domestic industry.
“We can now focus on its proper implementation so that everyone can and should benefit from the law,” she said.
The measure, which amends the Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996, removes the quantitative restriction on rice importation and impose a 35-percent tariff on imports from Southeast Asian countries.
She said the new law would help further cushion inflation.
“I am happy that President Duterte has signed into law the Rice Tariffication Act. It would further help in easing the inflation that has hit the poor the most,” Arroyo said.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Ray Villafuerte, a co-author of the law, said the rice competitiveness enhancement fund under the measure shall allocate 10 percent of its P10-billion allocation or P1 billion for credit to farmers and cooperatives.
The new law would liberalize imports of rice and expand the availability of cheaper rice, he said.
“This will, in turn, prevent a repeat of the 2018 inflation surge brought in large part by the supply shortfall and the subsequent retail price increase of rice…Rice tariffication will benefit poor households the most, given that rice accounts for 20 percent of their consumption,” he added.
Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, however, warned an “oversupply” of rice could adversely affect local farmers.
“The people will be hurt in the domestic market when you bring too much commodity from the outside and you deprive them of the source of livelihood, so we use ta tariff to protect them,” Enrile said in an interview.
“If you would neglect that, and anybody can bring and supply that commodity in our country, our farmers would suffer losses and prices would go down because you plant more than what is needed to cover the demand and that should be the standard of the tariff you need to enforce,” he added.
According to the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, a decline in rice farmers’ income of 29 percent is projected when the rice tariffication law is implemented.
