The House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture on Tuesday approved the proposed amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) that aim to bring down rice prices.
The committee’s approval came after President Marcos announced that he was prepared to certify the amendment proposals as urgent.
Speaker Martin Romualdez thanked the committee for approving the measure as quickly as possible, saying, “It is important that we provide our people, especially the poor, access to rice that is much cheaper than market prices.”
Romualdez said such access would be provided by returning the mandate of the National Food Authority (NFA) not only to buy palay from farmers, but also to sell rice directly to consumers. He earlier estimated that rice prices could fall from P10 to P15 per kilo.
On Monday, Romualdez met with Department of Agriculture (DA) officials who agreed to the plan to sell cheaper rice through Kadiwa stores.
The House leader has also vowed to have the RTL changes approved on third and final reading by his chamber before Congress goes on its annual sine die adjournment this month.
The panel’s chairperson, Rep. Mark Enverga of Quezon told reporters that the approved measure “will ensure that there will be the presence of NFA to stabilize the price of rice,” so that people can buy rice at more affordable costs and the government can fend off exploitative market traders.
Enverga said the NFA should always be ready to intervene in the market to bring down prices, especially in emergency cases. He said the approved bill would still have to go through the committee on ways and means at “the soonest possible.”
“Of course, we know how important this is to Speaker Martin Romualdez. He wants to realize that we can lower the price. Likewise, as announced by the President, he is very much willing to certify this measure. So, this is our way to have affordable rice for our countrymen,” he said partly in Filipino.
For his part, Deputy Majority Leader for Communications and ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo said the House efforts to bring down rice prices could get derailed in the Senate.
“We’re facing another uphill battle here. It was passed at the House already. Our problem now is the Senate. The Senate has a different version, and we think it does not make sense to us. So, even if the bill is passed here, once it gets there, it seems to be a futile exercise,” Tulfo said.
He asked the Senate to just adopt the House version of the RTL amendments. As for corruption issues, Tulfo said these could be addressed by passing the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act.
Tulfo pointed out that time is clearly running out on the approval of the proposed RTL amendments, particularly by the Senate, with Congress going on its sine die adjournment in less than three weeks.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline House panel approves RTL amendments to lower rice prices