Rice fund raised to P15B as House OKs rice tariff amendments

The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved on second reading amendments to the Rice Tariffication law to boost support to farmers and help increase their productivity.

House Bill No. 10381 amends the provision on the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) or the revenues sourced from collected tariffs from imported rice by increasing its annual allocation to P15 billion from P10 billion.

It also allows the National Food Authority (NFA) to buy and sell rice in emergency cases.

The P15 billion proposed RCEF will go to the following: rice farm machinery and equipment (53.5%); rice seed development, propagation, and promotion (29.7%); expanded rice credit assistance (6%); rice extension services or services provided by government agencies on rice crop production, farm mechanization, and knowledge/technology transfer through farm schools nationwide (3.3%); soil health improvement (4%); pest and disease management (2%); Rice Industry Development Program Management Office (1.5%).

“While RCEF’s impact in the first five years of its implementation is encouraging, emerging inefficiencies and changing market conditions over the course of RCEF’s implementation necessitate a reassessment of provisions of the Rice Tariffication Law. The provisions embodied in House Bill No. 10381 seek to make RTL more responsive to the times,” Nueva Ecija lawmaker Mikaela Suansing, the principal author of the measure, said in her sponsorship bill.

Likewise, the bill states that excess tariff revenues from rice imports can be allocated to other critical programs such as seeds and fertilizers, small water impounding systems, solar water irrigation systems, crop insurance, and crop diversification programs.

“...At the end of the day, our primary objective is two-fold: one is mabigyan po natin ng access iyong mga pinakamahihirap na mga pamilyang Pilipino sa mas murang bigas; at pangalawa po ay matulungan natin iyong ating mga magsasaka na mapababa iyong cost of production nila and increase their yield,” Suansing said.

(Our objective here is to give the poorest families access to affordable rice and to help our farmers reduce the cost of production.)

Albay lawmaker Edcel Lagman moved to further amend the proposed bill by increasing the annual RCEF allocation to P20 billion and later P17.5 billion, but the bill's sponsor and House agriculture and food panel chairperson Mark Enverga of Quezon rejected both amounts by citing that "unfortunately, what we will raise [off tariffs for RCEF] is not guaranteed."

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had earlier expressed his intention to certify the bill as urgent.

A bill certified by the President as urgent allows Congress to approve the measure on second and third reading on the same day.—LDF, GMA Integrated News