At least 50 solons want P15-B supplemental budget to buy palay from local farmers

A measure has been filed at the House of Representatives on Thursday seeking a supplemental budget of P15 billion for the National Food Authority (NFA) for the procurement of palay from local farmers amid the "dire" impacts of the Rice Tariffication Law.

The six-member Makabayan Bloc led the filing of Joint Resolution 18 backed by at least 47 other congressmen across party lines.

LOOK: Makabayan Bloc leads filing of a joint resolution urging the release of a P15-billion supplemental budget for the National Food Authority to procure palay from local farmers. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/zhtoXNM4Mz

— Erwin Colcol (@erwincolcol) September 19, 2019

Under the joint resolution, the proposed supplemental budget will be used exclusively to procure at least 750,000 metric tons of palay from local farmers at a farm gate price of P20 per kilogram.

The NFA will then sell the rice to consumers at P27 per kilogram.

The Rice Tariffication Law allows unlimited importation of rice as long as private sector traders secure a phytosanitary permit from the Bureau of Plant Industry and pay the 35-percent tariff for shipments from neighbors in Southeast Asia.

But according to the joint resolution, the implementation of the law has allowed the massive importation of rice which led to the sharp decline in palay prices. This resulted in huge income losses for local farmers.

Citing data from the Federation of Free Farmers, the joint resolution said Filipino farmers have already lost around P40 billion in income in just the first half of the year due to the huge drop of palay prices.

While an amount of P1 billion has been set for Expanded Rice Credit Assistance under the P10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, it is not enough to aid local farmers, the joint resolution argued.

At the same time, the joint resolution said the Department of Agriculture’s P1.5 billion Expanded Survival and Recovery Assistance Program for Rice Farmers will only provide each farmer P15,000 in the form of zero-interest loans.

Such amount will also only cover 100,000 rice farmers out of the total estimated 2.4 million rice farmers nationwide, it added.

"The country is once again entering the harvest season of the lean second cropping. The NFA must be refueled with adequate funds so that it can procure a substantial portion from the coming harvest," the joint resolution read.

Liberal Party lawmakers have also earlier filed a separate joint resolution authorizing the use of the unappropriated Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) and tariffs collected under the Rice Tariffication Law, amounting to P13 billion, as direct emergency cash transfers to farmers.

A joint resolution needs the approval of both houses of Congress and the signature of the President. —LDF, GMA News