The Department of Agriculture (DA) will distribute a total of P8.9 billion in excess rice tariff collections from 2021 to farmer-beneficiaries this year.
Isabela Rep. Tonypet Albano made the assurance following the interpellation of Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas during the plenary deliberations of the 2023 budget of the DA last Friday.
“The P8.9 billion is for a total of 1.7 million farmers. Of the amount, P5.39 billion has already been allocated and distributed to farmers tilling 2 hectares and below,” Albano said.
Citing a document, Brosas said the DA is targeting only 1.079 million farmers even when the total number of farmers listed in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture is at 1.9 million.
The Rice Competitiveness Enhance Fund (RCEF)-Rice Farmers Financial Assistance Program FY 2021 implementation, which started last October 2021, has already served 1,065,264 farmer beneficiaries who received a total of P5.3 billion as of September 15. Each beneficiary reached a cash assistance of P5,000.
“The remaining P3.6 billion [from the P8.9 billion excess revenues], if you calculate it, is the only one that is left to be given the P5,000 cash assistance…The [total] budget allocation was only good for 1.7 million farmers and therefore the other farmer-beneficiaries will be prioritized during the roll out of the program next year because of budgetary constraints,” said Albano.
“These budget constraints are because of inflation, Ukraine-Russia war and Covid-19 pandemic, which ate a lot of the government revenues.”
Under the rice tariffication law, tariffs collected from rice imports are used to fund the six-year P10-billion annual RCEF to bankroll programs that provide farmers with high-quality seeds, machinery, easier credit access, and relevant training.
Should annual tariff revenues from rice imports exceed P10 billion, the law mandates earmarking the fund by Congress—and included in the national budget of the following year—for financial assistance to palay farmers, titling of agricultural lands, an expanded crop insurance program on rice, and crop diversification.
Meanwhile, Brosas also questioned a special provision in the unprogrammed appropriations of the DA indicating that the excess revenues from the rice tariffication program will be lumped with other funds where the budget for other items such as Support to Infrastructure Projects and Social Programs (SIPSP) will be drawn from.
“Madam Chair, modification of purpose ito. Ang fund para sa cash assistance to farmers ay ni-lump sa SIPSP at iba pang programa. Against ito sa ating Seksyon 25 ng Konstitusyon. Article VI Section 25 (2) of the 1987 Constitution: (2) No provision or enactment shall be embraced in the general appropriations bill unless it relates specifically to some particular appropriation therein. Any such provision or enactment shall be limited in its operation to the appropriation to which it relates,” Brosas said.
Albano assured that the excess revenues from the tariff collections will not be used for other purposes and that the House of Representatives will coordinate the matter with the Department of Budget and Management.
“We welcome the suggestion of [Brosas] to actually talk to the DBM and clarify this point and also ask the DBM for its justification on why they wanted to lodge this in a certain manner that is inconvenient as what Congresswoman Brosas stated.”