Senate cuts palay-buying fund by P3 billion

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate has cut the palay procurement fund by P3 billion in its version of the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for next year.

Congressmen discovered the huge reduction over the weekend in the course of their scrutiny of what Albay Rep. Joey Salceda has described as “P235 billion dagdag-bawas (add-reduce)” that senators made in the 2020 budget.

Dagdag-bawas is commonly known as the electoral practice of cheating, under which votes for a certain candidate are shaved and added to another.

In the budget President Duterte submitted to Congress in August, he proposed P7 billion for the National Food Authority (NFA). The President’s budget proposal is officially called the National Expenditure Program (NEP).

A special provision in the NEP states that the funds “shall be used for the implementation of the rice buffer stocking program… (the) buffer stock shall be sourced solely from local farmers.”

The House of Representatives had augmented NFA’s palay procurement fund by P3 billion, increasing it to P10 billion, before the Senate scrapped the augmentation.

The House hopes that NFA’s expanded market intervention would prop palay prices up.

It is not clear why senators removed the additional P3 billion, which could buy 150 million kilos, or three million 50-kilo bags of dry palay at P20 per kilo. The NFA offers a much lower price for wet palay.

It is also not clear where the Senate diverted the P3 billion. The contingent of the House in the bicameral conference on the budget is expected to fight for the restoration of the chamber’s palay procurement augmentation.

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, who is appropriations committee chairman, and his Senate counterpart, Sen. Sonny Angara, jointly chairs the conference. They are scheduled to meet this week to iron out the two chamber’s differences on the budget.

House leaders have been batting for additional assistance to rice farmers, who are suffering from low prices for their palay produce.

Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr. of Pampanga said farmers need cash subsidies, farm inputs like seeds and machineries, hand tractors and driers.

Another deputy speaker, Mikee Romero of 1-Pacman, urged the Department of Agriculture to expedite the procurement of seeds and machineries funded under its P10-billion rice competitiveness enhancement fund.

He said inputs and equipment should be made available soon, since farmers are now preparing their land for next quarter’s main cropping season.

“Otherwise, the assistance intended for farmers will come too late,” he said.

For his part, Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr. said Congress should repeal the law allowing unrestricted rice importation, which he blamed for low palay prices.