Imee to NEDA: Disclose details of 15% rice tariff cut

MANILA, Philippines —  The National Economic and Development Authority should make public the details of the June 3 NEDA Board meeting that resulted in the government’s controversial decision to cut the tariff on imported rice to 15 percent up to 2028, Sen. Imee Marcos said.

Marcos made the call after Thursday’s Senate hearing into proposed amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law (Republic Act 11203) and Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RA 8178) showed that the proposal did not come from agricultural stakeholders, and was never raised during three consultative hearings of the Tariff Commission in 2023.

“It suddenly appeared at the NEDA Board on June 3. We will ask, as far as possible, who went (to the NEDA Board meeting) and if there is a transcript to provide. If necessary, there will be an executive session just so we can know the root of this EO 62 (Modifying the Nomenclature and Rates of Import Duty on Various Products),” Marcos said.

“Clearly, this was a small meeting. It was just a board meeting, right? So it can hardly be considered a public hearing with stakeholders and others,” Marcos said.

The NEDA Board is composed of the President as chairman and the NEDA secretary as vice chairman, with the following members: the executive secretary, special assistant to the president for investment and economic affairs, secretary of finance and secretary of budget and management.

Marcos noted that in the transcripts of the March, September and October 2023 consultative meetings and public hearings held by the Tariff Commission, there was no mention of a 15 percent rice tariff rate taking effect for four and a half years.

Tariff Commissioner Marissa Paderon explained that proposed changes to the tariff lines “came from the parties” present during the meetings.

“In reading that transcript, was there any new tariff rate on rice proposed or discussed? I can’t see anything. Throughout the transcript, no one howled, and no one said to drop the tariff to 15 percent. I didn’t see anything in the full transcript. I turned it upside down. Where did that come from? If you say that it will come from someone who will raise his hand and suggest a new tariff? Not in the transcript,” Marcos said, pointing out the lack of due process in the implementation of the rice tariff cut.

Marcos also lamented how farmers’ groups, federations and other agricultural stakeholders and the Senate were left out of the consultative meetings.

Farmers’ groups and rice millers present during the Senate hearing bared they were not even invited to the 2023 consultative meetings on the tariff lines, the senator noted. – Sheila Crisostomo