Camarines Sur representative Luis Ray Villafuerte expressed optimism on Tuesday regarding the decrease in rice prices following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s signing of Republic Act 12078.
This act amends the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) and restores the government’s authority to intervene in the market by selling cheaper rice whenever retail prices remain high, despite a surplus of stocks imported by private traders at lower costs.
Villafuerte stated that with the signing of Republic Act 12078, also known as the Agricultural Tariffication Act, Marcos “tweaked the RTL of 2019 by reinstating the government’s authority in emergency situations to purchase more rice stocks and sell them directly to consumers.”
He added that this will “hopefully reverse the current market trend of elevated prices of the staple despite softening global prices and a significant influx of stocks that importers had acquired at drastically reduced tariff rates.”
On Monday, President Marcos signed RA 12078, which amends RA 11203. This previous law, enacted in 2019, lifted the National Food Authority’s (NFA) authority to import rice, allowing private traders to purchase an unlimited volume of the staple overseas as long as they paid an import tariff of 35 percent.
“Restoring the government’s authority under the newly signed RA 12078 to acquire more stocks and sell them at lower prices through Kadiwa stores and other government outlets is likely to pressure importers or grain traders—or both—to reduce their retail prices, leading to more affordable rice in the local market, especially benefiting poor and low-income consumers,” said Villafuerte, who is the author of both the 2019 RTL and RA 12078.
In cases where the Department of Agriculture (DA) declares a food supply emergency due to a rice shortage or “extraordinary” price spikes—upon the recommendation of the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC)—Villafuerte noted that the DA Secretary is empowered to designate an entity within the Department (excluding the NFA) to import grain and sell these stocks through Kadiwa outlets, government agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Office of Civil Defense-National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (OCD-NDRRMC), or local government units (LGUs).
Villafuerte emphasized that allowing the NFA to purchase more stocks from local farmers will ensure the sustainability of the DA’s P29 and Rice-for-All (RFA) programs.
These programs require a substantial inventory for the government to continuously sell cheaper rice to a large number of poor and low-income families across the country.