Senators buck revival of NFA import power

MANILA, Philippines — Several senators are opposing the proposal of the Department of Agriculture to restore the power of the National Food Authority (NFA) to import rice.

During yesterday’s review of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) by the congressional oversight committee on agricultural and fisheries modernization, Senators Cynthia Villar and Imee Marcos said they would not support the call of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to allow the NFA to import rice again.

Villar, who chairs the Senate committee on agriculture, said President Marcos must have the special power to import rice during emergency situations and not the NFA.

As chairperson of the Senate committee on agriculture for the past 11 years, Villar said she has not seen the NFA’s concern for rice farmers.

“I don’t want to give (special power to import rice during emergency situations) to the NFA. If they want, just give special power to the President,” Villar said.

Villar lamented that the NFA has not shown itself to be taking care of the welfare of rice farmers and consumers.

She reiterated her call for the passage of the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Law to prevent the middlemen and traders from causing hardship to farmers and consumers.

Marcos, meanwhile, has thumbed down the intention of the DA to restore certain powers of the NFA, such as the temporary authority to import rice during exigencies and the registration of warehouses.

She said the DA and the Department of Trade and Industry could be authorized to import rice.

As part of its mandate, the DA is tasked to handle the monitoring of warehouses.

“It is clear that warehousing is part and parcel of the support services that are alluded to. I think that it is part of your wide-ranging law-making power. It is up to you to take up the cudgels for all who attempt to cartelize and otherwise limit the use of warehouses,” Marcos said.

The two senators pointed out that the NFA leased warehouses to cartels instead of to farmers during the onion crisis in the country and sold rice to traders, which is prohibited under the Rice Tariffication Law.

Villar asked Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. to investigate the allegations that the DA imported hybrid rice seedlings that were rejected by other countries.

She said there were reports that other countries reject the hybrid rice seedlings because they don’t want to grow these varieties.

According to Villar, the imported hybrid rice seedlings are expensive at P250 per kilo, while local hybrid rice seedlings are only priced at P30 per kilo.