MAJORITY of senators are not keen on approving the proposal to allow the National Food Authority (NFA) to import rice, Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform, said yesterday.
Villar said the primary mandate of the NFA is to buy rice from local farmers to ensure the availability of rice stocks across the country. She said the agency has a P9 billion budget for this purpose.
“Bakit hindi nila bilihin sa local farmers? P9 billion a year [ang budget nila]. Palagi silang out of stock kapag ang bibili ay yung mga gustong tumulong sa mga nasalanta ng disaster etc (Why don’t they buy [rice] from local farmers? They have a yearly budget of P9 billion They are always out of stock when agencies want to buy from the NFA for distribution to victims of disasters),” Villar said.
Villar said that like her, majority of her colleagues in the Senate are against giving back to the NFA the power to import rice but did not identify them.
“Ako, ayaw ko ibigay sa NFA. Kung gusto ng Presidente, siya [magbigay]. Kung gusto nila, ibigay na lang ang special power ng Presidente (For me, I am against giving it back to the NFA. If the President wants it, they can give his special power to the NFA),” she added.
Giving the NFA to import rice is not the solution to the high prices of rice, Villar said, popinting out that the reason why the price of rice is high is due to scheming activities of rice cartels which remain unpunished.
Villar said this problem can be addressed with the enactment of the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, which the Senate passed in December last year but is still pending at the bicameral conference committee level. The bill has been certified as urgent by President Marcos Jr.
She said the members of the House of Representatives to the bicameral panel have been the cause of delay for the measure’s passage. She did not elaborate.
The Senate version of the proposed measure seeks to impose severe sanctions against the nefarious acts of smugglers, hoarders, profiteers and cartels of agricultural and fishery products.
It shall serve as a self-preservation measure against the manipulative schemes of economic saboteurs, protect the livelihood of farmers, and plug leakages in tax and duty collection.
The bill also protects the State from tax evaders and those who do not pay duties, ensures the well-being of the country’s agricultural producers, and the welfare of consumers, and the economy as a whole.
“Nasa bicam na ‘yan nung December pa. Certified as urgent ‘yan ng Pangulo pero bakit ayaw nilang ipasa? Ayaw nilang aprubahan. Wala naman silang sinasabi sa akin kung meron silang gustong baguhin basta ayaw lang nilang ipasa (It is already in the bicam since December. It was certified as urgent by the President and I am wondering why they [HOR bicam contingent] are not acting on it. They are also not saying if they want some changes to the measure. They just don’t want to approve it),” Villar said.
President Marcos has earlier said that he will certify as urgent the proposed amendments to RA 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law to lower rice prices in the country.
Marcos has said the government can influence or control rice prices if amendments to the RTL are introduced, particularly in buying palay and selling rice to the public.
House Speaker Martin Romualdez has been pushing for amendments to the RTL to allow the NFA to again sell rice in the markets.
