The review, amendment or even abrogation of the controversial Rice Tariffication Law which had allowed the flooding of the market with imported rice would be the first legislative measure that I would submit to the Senate should I win as Senator in the May 2022 elections.
Ito ang sagot ko sa tanong ni Dr. Cesar Chavez sa kanyang programang “Special On Saturday” aired over DZRH every Saturday morning when I was asked what would be the first thing that I would do as Senator.
Since my advocacy is in achieving Food Sufficiency and Environmental Regeneration in the country, I have already prepared the legislations which I would introduce in the Senate should I, with God’s grace, win in May 2022.
I have divided my proposed legislations into “Immediate Remedial Legislations” which need to be passed right away to address problems affecting the people and “Institutional Legislations” which would look into the improvement of the institutions and existing systems affecting Food Sufficiency, Job Genration, Health Security and Environmental Regeneration which would include Water Resources Management and Conservation.
Nevertheless, I was able to emphasize what is wrong with RTL.
The Economic Managers, in convincing President Rody Duterte to sign the RT bill into law, claimed that by opening the market to the unimpeded supply of imported rice, the price of rice per kilo in the market would go down by as much as P7.
Second, they told the President that the tariff collected from the entry of imported rice would be poured into programs that would boost the productivity of the rice farmers.
Of course, sinong Presidente ang hindi sasang-ayon sa ganyan kagandang scenario?
Ang problema, hindi nangyari ang ipinangako ng mga Economic Managers at maski ano pang hilot at remedyo ang gawin nila sa kanilang mga Economic Data Analysis, they could not convince me and the stakeholders that the RTL is a good law.
Kung kamatis sana ang pinag-uusapan, tama ang kanilang teoriya na kapag binaha mo ang merkado babagsak ang presyo kasi mabubulok ang kamatis.
Rice is not kamatis. It can be hoarded and its release and price in the market could be controlled by the rich businessmen who had dominated the rice industry for ages, also known as the Rice Cartel.
The rice importers do not care about bringing down the price of rice in the market. They are after profit.
So, instead of importing the 25% and 15% Broken which are cheaper and could be sold at below P40 per kilo, the Rice Importers and Traders brought in the Premium Rice like Jasmine of Thailand and the Long Grains of Vietnam.
Their profit from the Premium Rice is almost 100%, so instead of buying from local farmers, the Rice Importers opted for the more expensive Premium Rice.
Since mahal ang premium rice at umaabot pa ng P60 per kilo, hindi bumaba ang presyo ng bigas sa merkado, bagkus tumaas pa.
In the meantime, local rice traders who used to buy local palay, were also drawn into the importation frenzy kasi walang hassle. Hindi na sila magbibilad at magpapagiling pa ng palay.
The result is the collapse of local rice prices dropping from a high of P20 to P21 per kilo when I was Secretary of Agriculture to only P10 to P13 today.
Marami pang mali ang RTL but we will discuss that in future posts.
In the meantime, I would like to assure our people that the amendments or a new law that we would introduce to replace the RTL would ensure that there would be sufficient supply of affodable rice in the market and the rice farmers would be given a fair price for their produce.
This is my first legislative agenda and I am prepared to present this on the first day of the Senate Session.
#FarmersVoiceInTheSenate!
#PoliticsWithAMission!
(Video footage of the SOS interview shared by Dr. Cesar Chavez, DZRH)
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