Truth About RTL! (7th of a Series) End 6 Years Of RTL Blunders

With Meaningful Amendments
Six years after the Rice Tariffication Law was enacted, it is now clear for everybody to see that it failed to achieve all of its targets.
While RTL Champions promised a P7/kilo price reduction in the market, the price skyrocketed from P38 per kilo in 2018 to P60 per kilo today.
While in 2017 the country only needed to import 800,000-metric tons, last year, imports quadrupled to 3.4-million metric tons earning the Philippines the embarrassing status as the World’s No. 1 Rice Importer.
Whichever way one views the RTL, there is no denying that the ill-planned legislation made a mess of the rice industry and there is a need to either amend or abrogate it.
The biggest obstacle to attempts to improve the law through amendments, however, are the legislators and economic managers who had remained deaf and blind to the unfolding realities in the rice industry.
In fact, one month after I issued a public challenge to a debate on the merits of the RTL, not even a squeak was heard of from the rabid defenders of the flawed legislation.
Former Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, the real brains behind the Liberalization of the Philippine Rice Industry, had not been heard of since his stint as head of the Economic Team under the previous administration ended.
Lately, Sen. Cynthia Villar, principal author of the Senate version of the RTL, issued a statement admitting that the law failed to achieve its target of improving the national yield per hectare and that it must be extended to be able to institute amendments.
Her admission of the RTL’s failure is a major turn-around from her previous position staunchly defending the RTL.
The problem with Sen. Villar, however, is her dogged refusal to listen to inputs from the stakeholders of the rice industry assuming the position that she alone knows what is best for the Filipino rice farmers and consumers.
With her last 6-year-term as Senator coming to an end 15 months from now, she could actually redeem herself by offering apologies to the Filipino rice farmers and consumers for the disastrous blunder that is the RTL.
(Next: Last of a Series: Amendments Needed To Correct The Flawed RTL.)