Senator Imee Marcos has assured rice farmers that, by December, they will receive the P6.9 billion in additional help from the government in the form of rice purchases or cash.
Senator Cynthia Villar, head of the agriculture and Food Committee, said the problems hounding the farmers, particularly the drop in the prices of unmilled rice with the implementation of the Rice Tariffication Law, was part of the “birth pains” of a new law.
“There are birth pains in system changes,” Villar said in an interview over dwIZ.
Meanwhile, Senator Francis Pangilinan said Sunday the dip in rice prices does not match the drop in palay prices.
He asked the Philippine Competition Commission to investigate and correct this anomaly.
“This means that the Rice Tariffication Law does not fulfill its promise to lower rice prices for consumers. the law only causes our rice farmers hardships because of low palay prices, Pangilinan said.
Villar said the Philippines had no choice since “we have a commitment that we should liberalize [rice importation] after 22 years.”
In fact, she said, this had even been extended to two years by the World Trade Organization.
“We were given 24 years by the WTO to be competitive but we failed to do it, so now we are having this problem, Villar said as she expressed hope that P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund would be successful.
To help farmers, Marcos said, the government, would be using the undisbursed funds from the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
On the other hand, Villar renewed her call to government agencies to buy their rice from local farmers.
“For example, the governors can get the rice they need for their hospitals, prisons, and programs such as giving rice to their employees, calamity assistance and feeding programs, from our local farmers.
She said the new law on rice would be beneficial to local farmers.
“They will be assured of P10 billion a year. If there will be more from the tariff, these will be given to them,” Villar said.
“The 947 rice-producing towns will be given P5 million worth of equipment every year and Philrice will give them 20 kilos of seeds per hectare and a bag of fertilizer per hectare. They can get loans from LandBank and Development Bank of the Philippines.”
Meanwhile, Marcos allayed worries that a memorandum of agreement among Social Welfare, Department of Agriculture and National Food Authority to purchase palay from local farmers “was held in abeyance” following a Supreme Court decision in October preventing budget allocations for items not specified in the national budget through a mere resolution in Congress.