Grainy future

In which case, it is again a problem of greed and inefficiency that is keeping this country from moving forward. Like a handful of palay in an open palm, we cannot hold on to progress if we do not ‘hold on’ together.

Rice issues have hounded our archipelago more times than we care to admit even as we blearily recognize the fact that the Philippines is an agricultural country.

Shortage of the staple grain which gave way to soaring prices led to the signing of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) on Valentine’s Day this year.

Yet what was supposed to benefit our farmers has done the complete opposite. The law may have been solid, but the effect became unwieldy.

Rice tariffication, instead, has been a vehicle for “excessive profiteering,” as some solons have observed lately, commenting on how Republic Act (RA) 11203 seems to have failed.

The said law opened the floodgates of misery for local farmers, who recently had to contend with farmgate prices of palay as low as P7 per kilo.

But is it right to raise the possibility of “economic sabotage?”

Rice traders are being blamed for overimportation and hoarding, taking advantage of the law that allows unlimited shipments of rice as long as the proper taxes are paid. Rice cartels are being closely watched for possible price manipulations as well.

It has gotten so tight for farmers that the House of Representatives is now mulling over the possible repeal of the RTL as a way to address the farmers’ woes.

Some 50,000 farmers had signed a petition asking for the repeal, which Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano recently received.

President Rodrigo Duterte has also moved to stay the excessive importation — which of course gives way to more uncertainty about the future of this industry that is so crucial to our food supply and sufficiency.

While some do insist that RA 11203 is a good law, there are aspects in the process of rice production that traders have misused and abused for so long.

In which case, it is again a problem of greed and inefficiency that is keeping this country from moving forward. Like a handful of palay in an open palm, we cannot hold on to progress if we do not “hold on” together.

Something is always keeping us back, and government needs to weed out the problem. Is tokhang for rice traders necessary at this point?

Meanwhile, stopgap measures are costing the country billions in additional budget as the House had approved a joint resolution allowing the use of nearly P10 billion for palay procurement or the purchase by the National Food Authority (NFA).

The additional budget augments the current need, as the “measure mandates that the P600 rice subsidy per month for beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps would be pooled and used by the NFA to buy palay from farmers at P19 per kilo,” a report says.

Also, it is said that P3 billion from the rice importation taxes would be added to the subsidy to give our farmers a very merry Christmas.

These may assuage the farmers’ needs at the moment, but what happens afterwards?

Perhaps it is time for our leaders to listen to what the farming groups are saying, chief of which is to give them protection by way of flexible tariffs.

To repeal or amend RA 11203 — that is the question. The answer is badly needed, and it had better be soon.