THE Senate is poised to open an inquiry into the implementation of the rice trade liberalization law, particularly the establishment of a fund that aims to improve the competitiveness of farmers.
In filing Senate Resolution 39, Senator Cynthia Villar cited the need to monitor the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) embodied in Republic Act (RA) 11203, by the designated government agencies, stressing that “this law involves a very important and sensitive commodity—rice—for every Filipino.”
She added that the Senate inquiry is being mounted to also “ensure that funds are allocated for the purpose actually intended.”
Villar’s resolution recalled that the law signed by President Duterte on February 14 mandated the lifting of rice import restrictions amid government hopes this will “make the food staple more affordable to Filipinos.”
She recalled that the law was passed precisely to “liberalize the importation, exportation and trading of rice, lifting for the purpose the quantitative import restriction on rice.”
RA11203 amended Republic Act 8178, also known as the Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996, and replaced the quantitative restriction (QR) in rice imports.
The resolution recalled that “instead of limiting the amount of rice that will enter the country, rice imports will instead be charged with corresponding tariffs, the collected amount of which shall be given to farmers to strengthen their productive capacities in the amount of at least P10 billion a year, for the next six years, through the RCEF.”
The Villar resolution noted that imported rice from Southeast Asian countries is slapped a 35-percent tariff, which is the import duty rate commitment of the Philippines for rice in the Asean Trade in Goods Agreement.
For non-Asean member-states, the tariff is set at 50 percent or the tariff equivalent calculated in accordance with the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement on agriculture upon the expiration of the waiver relating to the special treatment for rice of the Philippines.
RA 11203 provides that the RCEF will fund programs to increase income of Filipino farmers through various forms of assistance, such as development of inbred rice seeds, provision of rice farm equipment, cheap credit with Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines and education-training on skills enhancement, adding that “the fund would be allocated and disbursed to rice -producing areas.”
The law’s implementing rules mandates that a new rice roadmap should be crafted within 180 days after its effectivity, with the Department of Agriculture (DA) as lead agency to be joined by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), the Department of Finance and the Department of Budget and Management “in the formulation and adoption of a new rice roadmap.”
It specified that this roadmap should be based on the following principles: sustainable investments, particularly on rice support infrastructure and post-harvest facilities; improved productivity, efficiency and profitability of small rice farmers and landless farm workers; strengthened research and development programs; preservation and enhancement of rice production capabilities; provision of accessible, targeted and technology-oriented support services that cover the entire value chain; setting up of responsible, participatory and effective governance mechanisms; and, addressing the impact of income loss due to rice tariffication.
The law indicated that this will be implemented “through a complementation of the DA’s rice sector programs which are separately funded by the General Appropriations Act, on one hand, and the RCEF programs, on the other.”
Image credits: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg