Reelected Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, who was the Speaker of the 19th Congress, filed a bill on Monday seeking to re-empower the National Food Authority (NFA) to help bring down rice prices, stabilize supply and strengthen support for farmers.
Romualdez opened the 20th Congress by filing House Bill No. 1, or the “Rice Industry and Consumer Empowerment (RICE) Act.”
The bill seeks to reform the NFA under the Department of Agriculture by amending the Rice Tariffication Law and restoring the regulatory powers of the NFA to intervene in the
rice market, prevent hoarding, profiteering and price manipulation.
“Rice is life, and it is the soul of every Filipino family’s dining table. That is why this bill is the very first we filed in the 20th Congress. It reflects our singular focus on the daily struggle of every Filipino family to put affordable food on the table, and the need to reward our farmers with fair prices for their hard work,” he stated in the introduction of the bill.
It was co-authored by Tingog party-list Reps. Andrew Julian Romualdez and Jude Acidre.
The bill seeks to reinstate the NFA’s authority to register and license grain warehouses, conduct inspections, monitor the rice trade and seize hoarded rice stocks, and release them to the public to fight artificial shortages or price spikes, which lawmakers have found to be the handiwork of hoarders and unscrupulous traders.
Romualdez, who is vying for a second term as speaker, said he filed the bill pursuant to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Bagong Pilipinas campaign “and his desire to bring down the price of rice to its lowest levels without being disadvantageous to rice farmers.”
“The food crisis should no longer be used by some for profiteering. Consumers need an ally in government and also, the farmers. Through this bill, we [shall] restore that balance,” Romualdez said.
The bill also mandates the NFA to maintain buffer stocks sourced from local palay (unhusked rice) and authorizes it to set and enforce a floor price for its purchases, to ensure fair and stable prices and more reliable and affordable rice supply for the public.
“We cannot fight hunger without confronting price manipulation. This bill is not about going backwards to failed models. It is about smarter regulation that meets today’s challenges like climate shocks, global price volatility and local production gaps,” Romualdez said.
The bill also seeks to impose penalties of up to P2 million and two years of imprisonment for violators of the floor price policy. It seeks to impose a lifetime disqualification from public office for government officials who will be found aiding or abetting hoarding or profiteering schemes.
It also empowers the DA to lead the implementation of price stabilization mechanisms, supported by the NFA, and jointly enforce it in coordination with local governments and law enforcement agencies.
Romualdez said the measure “preserves the liberalized rice import regime under the Rice Tariffication Law but adds essential safeguards.”
“The goal is not to restrict trade but to empower state intervention when the public interest is at stake,” he said.
Other bills filed
Romualdez also filed a bill seeking to exempt millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from paying premium contributions to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
House Bill (HB) No. 2 seeks to “strengthen the country’s healthcare system to better achieve efficiency and equity and improve public health emergency preparedness” by amending Republic Act 11223, otherwise known as the “Universal Health Care Act.”
The measure provides that half of the OFWs’ premium contributions “shall be paid by the national government, while the other half shall be shouldered by their employers.”
It mandates the PhilHealth and the Department of Health (DOH) “to include a mechanism for lowering premium contribution in the implementing rules and regulations of this Act.”
The bill, which includes a provision prohibiting the transfer of funds, states the following: “Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, no portion of the reserve fund or any fund or income of Philhealth, including the provident fund under Section 16 (C) and the special health fund under Section 20 of this Act, shall accrue to the general fund of the national government or to any of its agencies or instrumentalities, including government-owned or -controlled corporations.”
Complying with a Department of Finance (DOF) circular, PhilHealth earlier transferred at least P60 billion of its reserve fund to the national treasury, with a further P30-billion remittance stopped by the Supreme Court.
The SC is still yet to resolve the issue.The Leyte lawmakers also filed House Bill No. 3, seeking the creation of the Philippine Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) to serve as the principal agency “tasked with developing and implementing communicable disease prevention and control initiatives,” in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The State recognizes its duty to give utmost priority to public health measures, particularly with the continuing emergence and reemergence of infectious diseases that pose significant threats to nations worldwide,” the bill said.
“The pandemic revealed the deficiencies in the Philippines’ health system, particularly in the areas of disease surveillance, outbreak response, coordination, and data-driven policy-making.
Romualdez also filed House Bill No. 4 or the Private Basic Education Vouchers Assistance Act by repealing key provisions in Republic Acts (RA) Nos. 6728 and 8545, collectively known as the Expanded Government Assistance to Students and the Teachers in Private Education (E-GASTPE) Act.
The House leader wants the decades-old E-GASTPE law replaced with a more responsive and expansive voucher system for students and teachers in private schools.
Lastly, the Speaker filed House Bill No. 5, which seeks the creation of the Eastern Visayas Development Authority (EVDA) aimed at “fast-tracking the recovery and long-term growth of Region VIII through integrated planning, stronger governance and public-private investments.”
The proposed EVDA, to be headquartered in Tacloban City, is envisioned as the lead agency in coordinating and harmonizing national and local government programs across the provinces of Leyte, Biliran, Southern Leyte, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Western Samar and the cities of Ormoc and Tacloban.
The bill proposes that the EVDA would craft a “long-term development master plan that would become the blueprint for investments, infrastructure rollout and socio-economic programs in the region, with the goal of building resilience against disasters and reducing poverty across rural and urban communities.”
