‘Rice tariffication needs delicate balance’

MANILA, Philippines — The Duterte administration should “strike a delicate balance” in implementing the rice tariffication law by making sure this will benefit both the farmers producing the rice and the consumers eating the staple, a party-list group said yesterday. 

“Lower rice prices would be greatly appreciated by consumers. But how about our farmers? Economic managers should strike a delicate balance in order to represent the interest of both consumers and producers,” lawyer Rico Paolo Quicho said. 

The first nominee and president of party-list Sulong Dignidad made the pronouncements after an official of the National Economic and Development Authority said imported rice will push prices lower than the National Food Authority’s selling price once imports start arriving in markets.

Quicho also expressed concern over the effects of rice liberalization to local farmers after the Philippine Institute for Development Studies projected a 29-percent decline in rice farmers’ income upon implementation of the tariffication law. 

“There are already projections that our farmers would suffer losses. Our local rice farmers cannot expect to compete against cheaper imports if rice prices suddenly dropped,” he added.

A party-list member of the House of Representatives from the farmers sector has also revealed the irony that the National Food Authority does not have the capability at all to fulfill its new mandate under the new law. 

Rep. Cecil Chavez of Butil party-list pointed out that the NFA does not have the logistics, funds as well as the equipment needed to be able to undertake its new mandate of buying palay for its supposed new role of buffer stocking for national emergencies.

“As much as we want the NFA to really buy palay from farmers at prices above the production cost, we cannot just see how a diminished NFA can do that role effectively,” she said.

“The NFA is in an ‘underwhelming state’ and is hobbled by financial, logistical and personnel morale problems and it needs propping up to be able to undertake its new mandate under the new rice import liberalization regime,” Chavez maintained.