THE Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) has questioned the legality of the planned importation of 300,000 metric tons (MT) of rice by the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) saying it goes against the provisions of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).
FFF said the RTL allows the government to import rice through PITC only on supply shortage and only upon the issuance of a directive from the President to the secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry, who chairs PITC.
“If as (Agriculture) Secretary (William) Dar implies there is no rice shortage, then there is no legal basis for PITC to import rice under the RTL,” said Raul Montemayor, FFF national manager.
“Paragraph E of Interagency Task Force (IATF) Resolution No. 17 issued on March 30, 2020 merely endorsed to the Office of the President the proposal of the DA (Department of Agriculture) to import rice through the PITC as a contingency measure. It is not clear however what contingency is being addressed considering that the DA has repeatedly stressed that we have more than enough rice up to the end of the year,” Montemayor said in a statement.
FFF also warned disbursements for the PITC imports with an approved budget of P7.45 billion may be disallowed by the Commission on Audit while the agency’s officials may be charged with graft if the importation has no legal basis.
“Why is the DA and not the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) the one pushing for PITC imports when the DA itself has declared there is no rice shortage? In fact, the DA has already issued sanitary permits for 2.7 million MT of rice imports by the private sector, which is much more than what the country needs,” Montemayor said.
He said PITC imports will arrive at a cost of around P25 per kilogram.
This will lead to at least P1.5 billion losses for the government due to additional costs for financing, storage and distribution if its selling price is matched with the National Food Authority’s (NFA) selling price of P25 per kg.
“Since PITC imports will presumably be exempted from tariffs, government will additionally forego P2.6 billion in tariff collections. In turn, farmers who are supposed to benefit from tariff collections on imports through the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund will be shortchanged by P2.6 billion,” Montemayor said.
He added the P7.45-billion budget for the PITC importation is higher than the P7 billion that has been allocated to the NFA to procure palay from local rice farmers.
Montemayor said this sends a bad signal at a time farmers are being encouraged to continue planting to ensure the country’s food security.
Under PITC’s guidelines for the 300,000 MT importation of 25 percent brokens, well-milled long grain white rice, only qualified foreign government entities may join the bid.
The deal involves delivery in five ports in the country including Manila, Davao, Cebu, Zamboanga and Tacloban for two shipments that should be delivered not later than June 22, 2020 and not later than July 22, 2020.
Actual submission and opening of bids will be on June 8, 2020 but if all bids exceed the allotted budget, bidders may be requested to resubmit their bids electronically on or before 3 p.m. of the same day.
