MANILA -- Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel "Manny" Piñol said the proposed rice tariffication measure, which is expected to be signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte sometime soon, is a commitment of the country to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
"The DA has very clear position to support the rice tariffication. There's no way we cannot support that as it is our commitment to the WTO," said Piñol in an interview at the sidelines of the Sugar Summit held Tuesday at the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM).
He, however, stressed that there is a need to study the effect of total deregulation especially on the stability of rice prices.
"We were just asking for a little more study on the indemnification of the total deregulation, especially on the stability of the buying price of palay. Right now, it dropped to PHP14-15," he said.
"If the price of palay decreases, sakit din ng ulo namin sa DA kasi magrereklamo ang mga farmers," he added.
Piñol said the only way to arrest that is "to allow NFA (National Food Authority) to continue buying from the farmers at an indicated support price which we are doing right now."
"The only problem is that NFA might not be able to sustain the procurement of rice given the fact it will no longer be allowed under the proposed bill to make borrowings," he said.
In a statement by the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI), it said that the country's agriculture is at an important crossroads.
"How the rice farmers will be treated will determine how the rest of the sectors will be so treated. Since rice is the most political of commodities, if the government will be seen as having abandoned the rice farmers to the ravages of unfair trade so that consumers can savor the magic of the market (which they haven’t even with the 1995 shock liberalization), then investments in the sector will shrink," it said.
Senator Cynthia Villar earlier said that the President has already certified as urgent the rice tariffication bill to protect Filipino farmers from the influx of imported grains as a result of the removal of quantitative restriction (QR) being imposed by the WTO.
Villar, chair of the Senate committee on agriculture and food, said that farmers were being misled by some groups who are against tariffication to protect their own vested interests.
“Unlike claims that tariffication will result to flooding of imported rice to Philippine market, this will make such importation beneficial to local rice producers," she said.
The rice industry, Villar said, is set to be liberalized due to expiration of QR on June 30, 2017.
"Pag nag-liberalize ka nang walang tariff, kawawa ang mga farmers (When you liberalize without tariff, the farmers will suffer)," she said.
Under the Rice Tariffication Bill, a PHP10-billion a year Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) will be allocated for five years.
This funding will be channeled through the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization, Philippine Rice Research Institute, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority as well as other agencies tasked to upgrade farmers technology and know-how.
PCAFI, however, said that these are supposedly the safety nets, but "experience teaches that even safety nets provided for by law can be undermined by ideology and poor governance."
"These safety nets seemed to be more for show because up to now the government has no trade data system to determine if an importation is in accordance with the rules of the WTO in terms of valuation and trade remedies, if any," it added. (PNA)
