THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) should immediately release the P10 billion for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) to help farmers affected by the influx of cheap imports, according to Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol.
Piñol told members of the RCEF program steering committee (PSC) on July 22 that time is running out for the government to roll out the necessary interventions for farmers now reeling from the steep drop in the price of unhusked rice.
The PSC, chaired by Piñol, also includes the National Economic and Development Authority, Department of Finance, Land Bank of the Philippines, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority as members.
“The spirit of the law is to assist rice farmers in increasing their productivity. The farmers are expecting the interventions, and we must deliver and so you have to work fast on this,” Piñol said.
The agriculture chief made the statement after rice farmers in Luzon reported to him that the farm-gate price of palay plunged to P12 per kilogram recently due to the influx of cheap rice from other countries.
The latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) indicated that the average farm-gate price of unhusked rice in end-June declined by 16.4 percent to P17.88 per kilogram, from last year’s P21.39/kg.
“The situation could worsen if we don’t deliver our commitment. For now, there is so much unrest among farmers especially in Luzon so we cannot afford not to deliver [interventions],” Piñol said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Farmers’ groups, including the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), have been urging the government, particularly the DBM, to release the RCEF as farmers have already started planting for the wet season.
Economic managers announced earlier that money for the RCEF could be released as early as the third quarter of the year.
The DBM maintained that it will release only P5 billion and not P10 billion, as it had already released P5 billion for the RCEF last year.
The set up of the P10-billion RCEF is mandated by Republic Act (RA) 11203 to improve farmers’ productivity and cushion the adverse effects of the rice trade liberalization law.
Under RA 11203, P5 billion of the RCEF is allocated for farm mechanization, P3 billion is for the distribution of inbred rice seeds and P1 billion is for credit assistance and farmers’ training.
FFF National Manager Raul Q. Montemayor said his group will said pursue the filing of a case against the DBM before the Ombudsman if it will not release P10 billion for the RCEF this year.
He said his group will make good of its threat to file legal charges against the DBM for “willful violation of RA 11203, or the rice trade liberalization law.”
“We may file the case next year because the DBM has until the end of the year to release the full P10 billion for 2019,” Montemayor told the BusinessMirror.
Image credits: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg