SENATE Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros and Sen. Francis Pangilinan have filed Joint Resolution No. 2, which seeks to strip the president of his power to adjust tariffs on rice.
The senators said imported rice has flooded the market since the Palace issued Executive Order No. 62 in June 2024, drastically slashing tariffs on imports from 35 percent to 15 percent and adversely affecting local rice producers.
“The critical timing of EO 62’s implementation relative to global market trends has further exacerbated the situation, as the benchmark international price for Thai 5 percent broken rice drastically dropped from approximately US$632 per metric ton in June 2024 (when EO 62 was signed) to US$419 per metric ton in early July 2025,” their joint resolution said.
This represents “a staggering over 33 percent decline in import costs on the global market and mirroring the 31 percent (June 2025) year-on-year decline in palay farm-gate price,” it added.
Hontiveros and Pangilinan said the combination of lower tariffs and precipitous drops in global rice prices led to the devastation of the Philippine agriculture sector.
Farmers are now selling their palay at prices that cannot even recover their production cost since the farm-gate price fell to around P16.90 per kilo as of June 2025 compared to P24.90 per kilo a year before, the senators added. The average cost of palay production was at P13.38 per kilo in 2023.
The senators said that during the 2025 budget deliberations, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) was repeatedly urged to publicly explain the specific mechanism for periodically reviewing tariffs imposed under EO 62 and come up with a clear plan to possibly raise back tariffs to 35 percent to protect local rice producers, “but a satisfactory and concrete response has yet to be provided.”
Congress has the power to impose tariffs under Article VI, Section 28 (2) of the Constitution, so the power of the president to impose tariffs can be withdrawn through the adoption of the resolution, they added.
While the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) allows the president to adjust tariffs, Section 1608 (f) of the same law explicitly gives Congress the right to withdraw such authority via the joint resolution.
“Passing this Joint Resolution is a critical step to correct a policy that has proven detrimental to our food producers. I call on my colleagues in the Senate and House to convene caucuses and prioritize this,” Hontiveros said in a separate statement.
She said a similar resolution was filed by Akbayan representatives in the House.
“Congress must withdraw that power or there may be no harvest by October.” Hontiveros said. “Farmers will refuse to plant, knowing they’ll only incur losses.”
Govt urged to buy 50% of farmers output
Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III urged the Senate Committee on Agriculture to study the possibility of the government buying 50 percent of farmers’ output at their price. “Because based on the study many years ago, it will help everyone. And the food prices might even go down,” Sotto said during Monday’s plenary session.
He said Davao del Norte has been buying produce from farmers for around two years now “and it’s been successful.”
Pangilinan, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, said he supports Sotto’s recommendation.
“We actually have the Sagip-Saka Act, which mandates that direct purchases by (the) government to farmers and fisherfolk organizations are exempted from public bidding,” Pangilinan said, adding that Sotto is correct that the government is the biggest buyer of food every year.
Sen. Raffy Tulfo said he also supports the recommendation but raised concerns on where the purchased produce will be stored since the government lacks warehouses.
“We should invest first in post-harvest (facilities) and that includes the National Food Authority having many warehouses,” he added.
