Rice Tariffication Law amendment to temper rice prices

Updated on December 10, 2024 at 12:20 p.m.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) and industry stakeholders lauded the signing of Republic Act No. 12078, which amended the law lifting import restrictions and increasing the allocation of the rice fund to P30 billion.

On the sidelines of the ceremonial signing of the law on Monday, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the amended Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) would lower retail rice prices in the country.

Tiu Laurel said (translated from Filipino), “In the long run, it should be possible to bring down the price of rice because with the increased funding and longer validity of the law, it would be more efficient and we will be producing more.”

He also said this would greatly help curtail smuggling as the DA’s regulatory power would be strengthened since they are allowed to inspect warehouses to get accurate data on local inventory.

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It would be a big help in curbing smuggling activities, he added, noting that the government has already curtailed some of those activities by reforming policies importation and declaration of imported goods.

The Anti-Agricultural Sabotage Act signed by President Marcos last September considers smuggling and hoarding of agricultural products as economic sabotage when the value of goods exceeds P10 million.

The law classifies smuggling, hoarding and cartel operations involving agricultural products as economic sabotage.

Tiu Laurel said aside from the inclusion of soil rehabilitation and the increased budget for irrigation, the additional investments provided under the amended RTL would be felt in one or two years.

The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (Pcafi) welcomed the higher DA budget allocation but urged government agencies to ensure the effective implementation.

“It is always welcome. The problem is the devil is in the implementation, and that’s what we should look at because of the experiences in the past; you will see COA (Commission on Audit) audit reports on how they performed in terms of the utilization of the funds that was given to the different agencies,” Pcafi president Danilo Fausto said in an informal gathering with the media on Monday.

Fausto said for instance, the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech), which implements the mechanization component of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), disbursed only 4.4 percent of its budget based on a 2023 COA report. This was far from the disbursement rate of other government agencies involved, which ranged from 75 percent to about 98 percent.

Based on the COA findings, PHilMech’s budget allotment amounted to P7.8 billion. However, the disbursement amount hit only P297.6 million in the previous year.

“I think, if I’m not mistaken, for the past two decades, there were several resignations because of [the] people… They retire and they have not recruited professionals to replace these people,” Fausto said.

“And if you have the same organizational structure, infrastructure, the DA implementing a bigger budget, you will experience the same kind of disbursements and fund utilization,” he added.

The Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag), meanwhile, urged the public to continue monitoring the implementation of the new law so that rice farmers could fully benefit from appropriate funds and applicable programs designed for them.

“We need to boost and strengthen our support to local rice farmers to remove all the false narratives of our economic managers on the need to import and reduce tariffs that are meant to be provided to our rice farmers under this new law,” Sinag executive director Jayson Cainglet said.

“Only through increasing public support and providing additional incentives to our farmers in reducing cost of production and increasing palay yield can we truly reduce rice prices,” he added.