A lawmaker on Monday warned that the government’s plan to declare a food security emergency to address high rice prices would only serve as a temporary solution unless the proposed "Cheaper Rice Act" is enacted into law.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is expected to announce the emergency on Wednesday, citing provisions under the amended Rice Tariffication Law, which allows such declarations during supply shortages or extraordinary price increases. This move would enable the National Food Authority (NFA) to release buffer stocks to stabilize rice prices in areas with spiking retail prices.

However, Agri Representative Wilbert Lee argued that the measure would not address the root causes of persistently high rice prices. The farmers, he claimed, need aggressive assistance from the government to boost their rice production to attain steady a supply and, consequently, prices.

“If only local farmers have full support [from the government], there is no need to declare a food security emergency. With the enactment of these bills, we believe that the price of rice will be lowered until the government's goal of P20 per kilo is achieved,” Lee said in Filipino.

The “Cheaper Rice Act” (House Bill 9020), filed in September 2023, has been pending at the committee level for over a year. The bill proposes a price subsidy program requiring the DA and other agencies to purchase local palay at P5 to P10 above prevailing farmgate prices to increase farmers’ income and encourage higher production.

Meanwhile, DA Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa clarified over the weekend that the food security emergency is being considered due to an “extraordinary increase in price,” not a supply shortage.

Despite measures such as Executive Order 62, which reduced tariffs on rice imports from 35% to 15%, and declining global rice costs, local prices remain high. DA monitoring shows that imported special rice is retailing at P64 per kilo, premium rice at P60 per kilo, and well-milled rice at P54 per kilo — still far from President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr.’s target of P20 per kilogram.

Akbayan Representative Perci Cendaña blamed cartels for manipulating rice prices and called for stricter action against those responsible.

"We need to teach these greedy, exploitative businessmen a lesson — jail time. If we don't show our teeth, we'll be stuck in a loophole of food security emergencies," he said.

The House quinta committee, investigating the high prices of rice and other agricultural products, suspects collusion between rice importers and traders as a primary cause. The panel plans to hold further inquiries in the coming weeks.