EO 62

President Marcos’ Executive Order 62 is again under the spotlight as Malacañang recently responded to farmers groups’ attempt to block the controversial order.

The EO reduced the tariffs of imported rice and other agricultural products to 15 percent from 35 percent.

The Office of the Solicitor General said on Monday that it has asked the Supreme Court (SC) not to block the EO, saying that the farmers’ groups, by going to the High Tribunal, violated the doctrine of hierarchy of courts.

While it said that the issues raised by petitions are factual issues, these must first be settled before the lower courts, the SolGen said in a 62-page petition.

“This Honorable Court is not a trier of facts and cannot resolve these factual issues at first instance,” the SolGen said.

The farmers’ groups are against the EO particularly because of its impact on rice, saying that the executive order would make the country dependent on importation.

They said the EO would prohibit farmers from being “more competitive.”

Retail prices of rice, the farmers’ groups added, have yet to go down despite almost a month of the implementation of the EO.

These are valid points. It’s true that the prices of rice have yet to go down to even close to P20 per kilo, as promised by President Marcos during his campaign.

The retail price of locally produced well-milled rice in Metro Manila markets ranges from P48 to P55 per kilogram, while regular-milled rice is from P45 to P52 per kilo, according to the latest Department of Agriculture (DA) price monitoring report.

Corn

However, the impact of the EO on rice – and on rice farmers – is not the same for all agriculture products.

For instance, the impact is certainly not the same for corn, as our agriculture reporter Jasper Emmanuel Arcalas and I discussed yesterday with the controversial EO again in the news.

Corn, which is used as feeds for poultry and livestock of the local producers, is required for the production of live poultry and livestock.

Unlike its impact on rice farmers, the EO is actually good news for feed millers because local corn production for feeds is not enough to meet overall demand, Jasper pointed out.

Perhaps, what could be better is a selective approach to EO 62 rather than pushing to nullify the order as a whole and in effect raising tariffs on all commodities.

A quick search of the Philippine Statistics Authority website showed that total corn stocks inventory of the country as of June 1, 2024 reached 750.76 thousand metric tons.

This indicates an annual decrease of 15.3 percent from 886.46 thousand metric tons in the same period last year, according to the PSA.

On the other hand, industry sources said local producers need 10 million metric tons of corn for feeds per year but production is only at eight million MT or less.

Petitioners seeking a temporary restraining order on EO 62 include the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, the Federation of Free Farmers, the United Broiler Raisers Association, the Sorosoro Ibaba Development Cooperative and former Magsasaka Party-list representative Argel Cabatbat (GMA-7, July 4, 2024).

As I said, the petitioners, including Cabatbat, could have studied the different commodities first and pushed for a more selective approach to take into account the need for imported corn – at least for now – to augment local production.

Higher tariffs on corn could also be an additional incentive for smugglers because it would make their commodities cheaper.

Thus, between legal importers and our local producers, smugglers who don’t pay any taxes at all would certainly benefit from higher tariffs on corn.

This, however, is not to say that EO 62 is a lasting solution to our problems in agriculture.

Competitiveness

Tariffs should just be temporary solutions. What's more important to is make our local industries competitive.

Every peso raised from the tariffs should be spent to support domestic industries, our farmers and producers so that we can produce more and not remain dependent on imports for our food security.

Paving the way for farm mechanization and modernization, providing technical support, giving farmers access to credit, pushing for high-yield varieties and, on the part of consumers, buying local produce, are just some of the ways to help local industries become more competitive.

Smugglers and cartels and their coddlers in high places must be brought to justice so that cheap goods with questionable quality do not find their way into the market.

Prosecution of agricultural smugglers and the big fish behind them would show a message that our authorities are serious when it comes to helping our local industries.

One of the biggest ironies of the Philippines is our sorry state of agriculture.

In the pre-war era, agriculture was one of the most important – if not the most important – sectors in our economy.

This is no longer the case decades later, as seen in the sorry state of our farmers and their farmlands.

Hopefully, it’s not too late to bring back the glorious days of our Philippine agriculture.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.