Ex-DA chief says RTL amendment to uplift farmers' livelihood

Former Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel "Manny" Piñol said on Thursday that the amended Rice Traffication Law (RTL) will be a huge boost to uplifting Filipino farmers' livelihoods if passed by the Senate.

According to him, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. certifying the RTL amendment as urgent is a win for the farmers.

"The changes in the Rice Tariffication Law are a great victory for our groups that have been calling for a review of the Rice Tariffication Law for a long time because they have not fulfilled their promise," he said in a radio interview, citing the government's vow to bring down rice prices in the market to P7 per kilo under the law.

"At that time, the price of rice in the market was P38. Now, how much? P60?", he added.

Piñol said that when the RTL was enacted in 2019, the Philippines' rice sufficiency level was 95.3 percent, far from the present's rice independence at 77 percent.

"That means we import 23 percent of our rice supply," he said.

Moreover, he said that with rice retail prices kicking high from P38 to P60 per kilo, around P78 billion was generated last year from Filipino consumers.

"This change of RTL, if not opposed by the Senate, is a great gift from the President to the Filipino farmers," said Piñol.

Moreover, he explained that the RTL has two versions: Congress' and the Senate's.

"There is a move to stop the quantitative restriction of rice imports, and we will go to the tariff. The Congress version is the result of a national consultation," he said, noting that in the Congress' RTL version, the NFA still has power over the local rice market and that the tariff is scheduled.

"This means that during the harvest season, the tariff must be raised to about 180 percent to discourage importers from flooding the market with rice, and the price of rice will fall. Now if it's off-season, the tariff can be lowered to zero," he explained.

He added, "The problem is, the RTL Congress version was overlapped by the Senate version, whose author was the former economic team led by then Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III. They wanted to liberalize the rice industry. They took away the regulatory and supervisory powers of the NFA over the rice industry."

Importation not bad

Piñol, however, clarified that there's nothing wrong with importing rice, for this will ensure the country has a sufficient rice inventory in times of emergency and lack of supply.

However, he said that the Philippines must not be dependent on importation "because if that happens, we will dampen the enthusiasm of Filipino farmers for planting."

"And of course, we will be at the hands of the mercy of the importers. Because they will control the price of rice and the supply of rice in the market," Piñol added.

The DA backed the extension of the RTL stemming from the "lack of significant investments in agricultural infrastructure over the past 27 years."

Under the 2019 enacted law, a P10 billion annual appropriation for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund is allocated, which will be directly distributed as an aid to local farmers.

On Tuesday, the House Committee on Agriculture and Food approved the bill amending the RTL and allowing the NFA to buy and sell rice.