House panel OKs rice tariffication amendments

MANILA, Philippines — A day after President Marcos certified as urgent the proposed amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), a House committee approved yesterday a bill amending the measure.

The House panel on agriculture and food, chaired by Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga, has approved a substitute bill that would restore the power of the National Food Authority (NFA) to buy and sell rice to consumers.

Speaker Martin Romualdez thanked the committee for the quick approval of the measure. “It is important that we provide our people, especially the poor, access to rice that is much cheaper than market prices,” he said.

Romualdez said such access would be provided by restoring the mandate of the NFA not only to buy palay from farmers but to sell rice directly to consumers.

He earlier estimated that with this, the prices of rice could fall from P10 to P15 per kilo.

The Speaker is eyeing to have RTL amendments approved by the lower chamber on third and final reading before Congress goes on its annual sine die adjournment this month.

According to Enverga, the still unnumbered substitute bill would be forwarded to the House committee on ways and means to discuss its tax provisions and to the appropriation panel for budget provisions.

In an ambush interview, Enverga said the presence of the NFA will be established in the market to stabilize the price of rice. He noted that NFA would be ready to intervene to bring down the prices of rice in the market, especially in emergency situations and this will be the government’s tool to counter unscrupulous traders.

The lawmaker underscored the need for the local price coordinating councils and National Price Coordinating Council to monitor prices and to coordinate NFA’s market intervention.

For his part, Deputy majority leader and ACT-CIS partylist Rep. Erwin Tulfo claimed that House efforts to bring down the price of rice could get derailed in the Senate.

“I am asking our counterparts in the Senate. Maybe they could tweak their version nearer to ours. Even just the NFA, let’s not talk about the others,” Tulfo added.

P29/K rice by August

The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is eyeing to sell rice at P29 per kilo by August as it is seen to produce some 100 million kilos of the staple from a contract farming deal.

NIA administrator Eduardo Guillen said the rice would be sold in areas like Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao through the outlets of Kadiwa, a government program that seeks to help farmers and small businesses sell their goods and provide consumers access to lower-priced products.

“Based on our estimate, we can sell at P29 (per kilo) by August. And we have around 100 million kilos of rice that we are projected to produce by August,” Guillen said at a Malacañang press briefing.

Once the rice is available in the Kadiwa outlets, each family may buy up to ten kilos, the NIA chief said.

As of yesterday, the price of local commercial rice ranges from P46 to P65 per kilo while that of imported commercial rice ranges from P48 to P65 per kilo, according to the agriculture department.

Guillen said irrigators have also started to sell rice for P20 per kilo at the Kadiwa outlets of the NIA.

“It is an initiative of our irrigators’ association. They said they are thankful for the numerous assistance they received from our government. They are offering P20 rice,” he said.

When he was running for president in 2022, President Marcos vowed to bring down the price of rice to P20 per kilo to make the staple accessible to ordinary Filipinos. While critics claim that the campaign promise is not attainable, the agriculture department still regards it as an “aspiration” and a “target.”

Rice, corn investments

The NFA would be given the power to regulate foreign investments in the rice and corn industries, based on a proposed amendment to the RTL.

During the fourth day of the deliberations of lawmakers on the proposed amendments to the RTL, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda proposed that the NFA shall be given the powers to regulate foreign investments in the two agricultural industries.

Under Salceda’s proposal, the NFA will have the power to authorize alien individuals or organizations to engage in the rice and/or corn industry subject to certain conditions.

The state-run grains agency will also have the power to certify the need for foreign investment in the rice and corn industries as well as prescribe minimum total investment required.

Salceda argued that at present there is no government agency overseeing foreign investments in rice and corn.

Salceda also proposed that the Bureau of the Treasury certifies the total tariff collections from rice imports not later than 30 days from the end of each fiscal year. This is earlier than the April 15 deadline given to the Bureau of Customs to certify the total rice tariff collections made in the preceding fiscal year. — Alexis Romero, Jasper Emmanuel Arcalas, Delon Porcalla