DEPUTY speaker for finance Luis Raymond Villafuerte (Camarines Sur) on Sunday said the annual budget for the Department of Agriculture (DA) and its attached agencies may double or even triple under the proposed national budget for 2021 to ensure self-sufficiency in food production in the face of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Villafuerte said he will push for a “re-prioritization” of the proposed 2021 General Appropriations Act (GAA), with a huge chunk of the budget going not only to infrastructure and social services but also to agricultural development “with the long-term goal of attaining sufficiency in rice and other basic foodstuff in the post-pandemic scenario.”
“Alongside ‘Build, Build, Build,’ the Duterte administration needs to likewise put ‘Plant, Plant, Plant’ on the front burner to best prepare the country for the ‘new normal’ once the pandemic spawned by the lethal COVID-19 has been contained,” he said.
Villafuerte is seeking a two-fold or even three-fold increase in the 2021 budget of the DA, which has the eighth highest budget under the 2020 national budget with P64.7 billion.
The House is working with the budget and economic experts in crafting the 2021 proposed national budget to make it easier for Congress to approve the annual budget.
In support of higher farm productivity, the social amelioration sub-panel of the House’s Defeat COVID-19 Committee (DCC) earlier approved House Resolution (HR) 821calling for a P1 billion supplemental budget for the DA’s food supply availability and price stabilization programs.
This DCC sub-panel co-chaired by Villafuerte endorsed during its latest virtual meeting HR 821 authored by San Jose del Monte City Rep. Florida Robes, subject to amendments proposed by Quezon Rep. Wilfrido Mark Enverga, who chairs the House committee on agriculture and food.
Villafuerte said that while it might be easier and even cheaper to just import rice and other prime agricultural products, the tendency of certain countries to hold off on exports of their surplus commodities “would work against our favor in the post-pandemic era.”
He recalled that Vietnam, which is the leading source of the Philippines’ rice imports, bared plans in March to reduce or even put off exports of its surplus rice stocks, to guarantee enough supply for its people during the health crisis.
Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar are the Philippines’ main sources of imported rice, with Vietnam accounting for about two-thirds of such shipments.
Earlier reports claimed that Russia has planned to cut its grains shipments abroad to protect its own food security while Kazakhstan has also banned the overseas sale of its wheat flour, carrots, sugar and potatoes.
Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero of 1-PACMAN urged the government to postpone the importation of rice until the country’s rice farmers have harvested their main season crop.
“Though harvest peaked late last month until early this month, many farmers are still harvesting their dry season palay crop. Let’s wait for them to finish in about two weeks before finalizing any rice importation agreement,” he said.
Romero said bringing in imported rice at this time or even announcing a final importation arrangement could bring down rice prices and consequently the trader’s buying price for palay when farmers are enjoying high prices for their harvest.
The DA has announced that the government would be importing 300,000 metric tons (six million 50-kilo bags) of rice through the Philippine International Trading Corp., which was already in negotiation with Vietnam.
Romero urged the DA to make sure that all the 600,000 farmers owning small areas of riceland get the P5,000 in financial assistance due them under the social amelioration program.
He said as of the May 5 report of the DA, 415,000 of the intended beneficiaries had already received aid, leaving a balance of 185,000 who were still awaiting the assistance.
