The government will do away with the old government-to-government (G2G) scheme and shift to government-to-private scheme (G2P) to allow more competition and lessen corruption in the government’s importation of rice in the country, Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco said Tuesday.
“It has decided to shift from the old government to government scheme to an open tender scheme, otherwise known as government to private scheme or G2P,” Evasco said in a news briefing. “This year’s government-to-private importation seeks to do away with the old G2G that lacks transparency and competition,” he added, saying that the policy shift “is consistent with President Duterte’s call for change.”
Evasco likewise announced that the Subic Freeport Zone will no longer be used as port of entry for future government-to-private importations.
“The council has also agreed to remove Subic Freeport Zone as port of entry for G2P and to include Zamboanga City as port of entry instead,” he said, without explaining further.
The government is set to import 250,000 metric tons of rice when it activates its standby authority for importation this year.
With the new scheme, imported rice should be delivered to Philippine ports in tranches with at least 30 percent of the volume of import quotas should arrive between August 2017 and September 2017. The rest, meanwhile, should arrive between December 2017 to February 2018.
“Under the G2P, the NFA council, per recommendation of the National Food Security Committee and Imports Committee, shall divide the 250,000 MT import authority into several tranches of arrival and will be putting a cap on each lot, to ensure competition and fair trade,” Evasco said.
Terms of payment to traders will also be shortened to 15 days from the original 365 days “since small-time rice trade importers can’t wait an entire year before receiving payment,” he added.
Under the new policy, the National Food Authority administrator must release import permits within a day, adding that his duty was “purely ministerial or mandatory.”
In the same briefing, Evasco assured that the rice buffer stock in the country remains comfortable after it fell short last month.
“Our domestic rice index situation, as of June 7, 2017, shows that the household and commercial stocks are in comfortable status, with household stocks at 44 days and with commercial stocks at 28 days,” he said.