Villar pushes extension, higher budget for RCEF

MANILA, Philippines —  Sen. Cynthia Villar wants to double the annual guaranteed allocation for the rice competitiveness enhancement fund (RCEF) to P20 billion as she seeks to extend the fund by another six years or until 2030.

The extension of the RCEF is necessary in sustaining the initial gains from the program in improving rice farmers’ productivity as noted by Villar in her previous pronouncements.

Villar is the principal author of Republic Act 11203 or the rice trade liberalization that created the RCEF in 2019.

RCEF, which aims to make rice farmers competitive against neighboring countries, is set to end this year after six years of implementation.

Under the law, the RCEF gets a guaranteed annual appropriation of P10 billion, while all tariffs collected from rice imports in excess of P10 billion would be plowed back to the rice industry to bankroll additional programs.

“We will have some changes based on the performance (of the components),” Villar, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of a poultry forum.

“The (rice tariff) collection is so huge. When we passed the law they said collections would reach P12 billion but now it is around P30 billion. So, it is okay even if we increase the (RCEF) budget to P20 billion,” Villar added.