Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has warned that the country’s rice farming sector faces collapse unless the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) is amended to restore stronger government control over rice importation and retail.
“I really feel that the RTL, as it is written today, will kill our rice industry. If it is not addressed, if it is not amended, it will kill the rice industry,” Tiu Laurel said.
He said liberalized rice importation has disrupted the domestic market, with cheap imported rice eroding the market share of local producers and threatening the viability of local milling operations.
Tiu Laurel pointed to the DA’s successful intervention in regulating sugar and onion imports as a potential model for rice, should the law be amended.
He proposed limiting rice imports to cover the country’s supply gap plus a two to three-month buffer stock, or roughly 750,000 to 1 million metric tons per year.
To support this policy shift, House Speaker Martin Romualdez filed House Bill No. 1, also known as the RICE Act. The bill seeks to restore the regulatory powers of the National Food Authority (NFA), empower the DA to restrict imports during harvest seasons and enable the government to set a floor price for unmilled rice (palay).
Tiu Laurel said the bill was developed in close coordination with the DA and the Speaker’s office, though further refinements would be proposed to ensure the long-term sustainability of domestic rice production.
The agriculture chief also plans to meet with Senate President Francis Escudero and agriculture committee leaders in both chambers of Congress to build consensus around amending the RTL.
Enacted in 2019, the RTL allowed unrestricted rice imports by private traders, removed the NFA’s market regulatory functions, and limited its role to maintaining buffer stocks sourced from local farmers. The law also created the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), financed by rice import tariffs, to support farm mechanization, input subsidies and credit access for rice farmers.
A December 2023 amendment extended RCEF’s funding through 2031 and tripled its annual allocation to 30 billion pesos. However, it fell short of reinstating the NFA’s authority to regulate the domestic rice market, granting the DA import powers only during food security emergencies.
