Proposed zero subsidy for palay procurement scored

MALOLOS CITY, Philippines  – The Philippine Farmers Advisory Board (PFAB) has declared a temporary slowdown in rice production and palay deliveries.

This, as the PFAB protested Malacañang’s diversion of the P6-billion rice procurement budget of the National Food Authority (NFA) to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

In a three-page manifesto, the PFAB also decried Malacañang’s proposed zero subsidy for palay procurement as patently anti-farmer, and called on legislators to strengthen the NFA by allocating funds for palay production.

The PFAB warned that it would stage mass actions until the Aquino administration, which it described as a “new wolf government clothed in sheep’s clothing,” restores what is rightly for farmers.

Katho Moreno, PFAB national chairman, said farmers from 15 regions would not plant palay in the next cropping season, as they see no future with the government’s proposed zero subsidy for palay procurement.

“This early, the NFA office in Lingayen, Pangasinan has stopped palay procurement as they ran out of budget for this year,” Moreno said.

He said the experience of NFA-Pangasinan is a prelude to what will happen next year if the government’s proposal materializes.

“This is a recipe for a rice crisis,” Moreno said, noting that all 15 chairmen of Regional Farmers Action Councils comprising the PFAB have signed the manifesto.

Without the palay procurement subsidy, Moreno said the country will be dependent on rice importation.

Moreno said that without the NFA stabilizing rice prices, Filipino farmers will be vulnerable to the whims and caprices of private grains traders.

“Rice importation favors the foreign farmers and is a robbery to the Filipino farmers,” he said.

For his part, Roman Sanchez, chairman of the NFA-Employees Association, warned that the proposed zero subsidy for palay procurement will only breed a new rice cartel that can easily keep the government hostage during a rice crisis.

He said Malacañang’s proposal is ill advised, describing it as a “poison being forced into our mouth, into our throat, into the whole system of all Filipino farmers engaged in palay production.”