The inter-agency National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC) is readying a measure that would stabilize food supply and deter hoarding so it can intervene anytime.
In a press conference, Amanda Nograles, assistant secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry, said Department of Agriculture is drafting the implementing rules and regulations providing for a 10-day buffer stocking of agriculture and fisheries products like rice, corn, sugar, onion, pork and fertilizer.
“The goal is, in addition to creating a market base mechanism to decrease prices by increasing supply, this mechanism will be a deterrent to hoarders and those engaged in illegal manipulation so government can intervene any time,” Nograles said.
Nograles said under Section 9 of the Price Act, the implementing agency can call for a buffer stocking.
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has expressed support for the proposed extension of the Rice Competitive Enhancement Fund (RCEF).
However, NEDA would like to evaluate first the implementation of the program.
“I’m fine, I’m okay with that,” NEDA secretary Arsenio Balisacan said when asked on his position on the proposed extension of the RCEF on the sidelines of the 2024 National Innovation Day celebration held in Quezon City yesterday.
“NEDA is looking at that issue. I would like to think that keeping the RCEF and targeting it well, using it well to improve the productivity on rice, is not a bad idea,” he added.
Balisacan further said utilizing it for highly productive activities, especially those that will address low productivity issues in the rice sector, will be a good move.
RCEF was created by the Rice Tarrification Law (RTL) which among others provides for the allocation of all tariffs collected from rice imports to programs that would benefit local rice farmers and the industry.
Under RTL, collection will be up to June 2024 after it started in 2019.
NEDA undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon echoed the NEDA chief’s statement in the same event, as she mentioned that the agency is “supportive” of the proposal to extend the validity of the RCEF.
“Now, with respect to the funding, especially the allocation, I think that has to benefit first from the evaluation of the previous implementation,” Edillon said.
“Let’s look at what happened, what are the recommendations that will be used in the design of that extended RCEF program,” she added.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) earlier expressed support for the proposed extension of the RCEF, including an increase in the existing fund size of P10 billion.
Nueva Ecija Rep. Rosanna Vergara has filed a bill seeking to extend RCEF by another six years.
Her proposal is supported by Sen. Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture.
AO 20 reactions mixed
Meanwhile, Administrative Order (AO) 20 which streamlines processing of importation of agriculture products drew mixed reactions.
The Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) said outright smuggling through misdeclaration and undervaluation will continue in the absence of 100- percent border inspection of all agriculture products as provided by the Food Safety Act of 2013 and the Anti Agri Smuggling Law.
Jayson Cainglet, SINAG executive director, in a statement, said the economic team must also find ways to resolve issues faced by local producers such as in securing of business permits and other compliance certificates; arbitrary closure of farms or increasing requirements and fees for farms to continue operating; movement of agri produce across the country with diverse regulations or opposite ordinances among local government units and national directives; and the difficulty in claiming of subsidies or insurance coverages.
In a separate statement, Danilo Fausto, Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) president, said AO 20 may help in easing inflation only in the short term but may endanger the country’s food sufficiency and autonomy.
“AO 20 will encourage and incentivize imports. While it may help ease inflation in the short term, it will damage agricultural production over the long term. If local producers cannot compete with imports because of slow delivery of government policy programs designed to assist our farmers due to our bureaucratic system, farmer producers will leave farming and do something else as a means of their livelihood. This will be highly dangerous to our food sufficiency and autonomy,” Fausto said.
Sen. Francis Escudero yesterday said he “would have preferred that more emphasis was given to local production than importation.”
Escudero said while he agreed with intent of the AO, “true and genuine food security is based on domestic ability and supply to answer our needs, with importation simply being a ‘stop gap’ or in the interim while we haven’t achieved ‘food security’ in order to curb inflation of basic food staples.” Escudero said in a Viber message to the media the DA should strictly monitor the activities of individuals who may take advantage of easing the process on importing agricultural products.
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III said he hopes t the importation of food products is “temporary” since the “ultimate goal” should be sufficient local food production to ensure food security.
He said the effects of El Nino compounded by the current food production may be reasons to import “some” agricultural products but that “he policy should be to increase domestic production of all food products that Filipinos consume. “
“We should not encourage and/or convert our farmers (even indirectly through cooperatives) to be importers,” he said. With Raymond Africa and Jed Macapagal
