Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has ordered officials overseeing the National Rice Industry Development Program (NRIDP) to consult with farmers and lawmakers on the Rice Industry and Consumer Empowerment (RICE) bill, as farmgate prices of palay decline.
Tiu Laurel said the nationwide consultations will help shape the government’s response to the recent decline in palay prices, which has left many palay farmers unsure about planting in the next cropping seasons.
“Some farmers claim that private traders are blaming the P20/kg rice program for the drop in prices. That’s simply not true… On the contrary, we need to accelerate the expansion of the subsidized rice program,” he said.
He stressed: “Selling rice at P20/kg helps decongest NFA warehouses, allowing us to buy more palay from farmers. Every bag of rice sold at P20 frees up space for two sacks of palay, which we can purchase at better prices than what private traders offer.”
All rice stakeholders should be heard about House Speaker Martin Romualdez’s bill, which has proposed measures to correct “flaws” and “loopholes” in the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), Tiu Laurel said in a statement on Monday, July 14.
The DA said Romualdez’s bill will update the RTL and restore the regulatory powers of the National Food Authority (NFA) to intervene in the rice market and prevent hoarding, profiteering and price manipulation.
“No less than House Speaker Martin Romualdez has endorsed the proposed RICE Act, designating it as House Bill No. 1. This underscores the House of Representatives’ strong commitment to correcting flaws in the Rice Tariffication Law, loopholes that have been exploited by unscrupulous traders to the detriment of our farmers,” Tiu Laurel said in the DA statement.
DA Undersecretary for Operations Roger Navarro, DA Undersecretary Chris Morales of the NRIDP, NFA Administrator Larry Lacson, and Food Terminal Inc. President Joseph Lo, will lead the consultations with all stakeholders, the DA said.
The FTI is an attached corporation of the DA, which procures rice from the NFA and consigns it to the Kadiwa ng Pangulo outlets and other government agencies involved in the government’s P20-per-kilogram rice program.
The DA has been banking on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s recent assurances that the NFA will keep buying palay at higher prices than what traders offer while sustaining the P20/kg rice program until the end of his term in 2028.
The DA also said it has established 94 sites nationwide to sell the P20/kg rice to vulnerable sectors.
The vulnerable sectors eligible to buy the P20-per-kilo rice are the solo parents, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, indigent families listed under the government’s conditional cash transfer program, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the 4Ps, beneficiaries of the Walang Gutom Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the minimum wage earners identified by participating private companies and the Department of Labor and Development.
In June, the DA said the government had sold a total of 2,361.07 metric tons (MT) of subsidized rice through various programs from July 5, 2024 to May 23, 2025. The agency earned P77.36 million in total sales and benefitted 430,805 households.
But the agency said the government will need P3.5 billion, up to P4.5 billion to subsidize the P20/kg rice program in 2025 alone.
And to prop up the farmgate prices of palay, the DA said it has been buying at a minimum of P17 per kg for fresh, and up to P24 per kg for dry palay.
To further support this effort, the DA said the NFA has acquired more trucks, upgraded warehouses, and requested a larger procurement budget.
As of June 30, the NFA already procured 149 percent of its first semester target.
However, the agency admitted that increased importation due to lower tariff and world rice prices have muted the impact of the NFA’s palay-buying activity.
