CNN Senatorial Forum! Piñol: Amend Rice Tariff Law; Castricciones: Review CARP

Ex-Duterte Cabinet members to amend laws related to former depts if elected to Senate

By CNN Philippines Staff

Published Feb 20, 2022 9:05:06 PM

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 20) – Former Duterte administration Cabinet secretaries running for the Senate said they would push to amend controversial laws related to their previous departments if elected.

Manny Piñol, who served as Agriculture secretary from 2016-2019, described Republic Act 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) as one of the current Senate’s “biggest blunders,” saying it has become a big burden for Filipino farmers.

They (economic managers) promised that if we allow the flooding of our local market with imported rice, the price of rice in the market will go down by seven pesos, it did not happen. They promised that with the tariff collected from the RTL, our farmers will have a better life. That did not happen and the prices of palay and farmgate collapsed,” Piñol said during the CNN Philippines Senatorial Forum on Sunday.

If elected to the Senate, Piñol said his priority agenda would be to amend the RTL, which was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte into law in February 2019.

Piñol also lamented that under the RTL, the National Food Authority became a “buffer stocking” agency which allowed rice cartels to control the rice prices in the market.

“If we do not correct this, the rice industry will ultimately collapse,” said Piñol, who is running under the Senate ticket of presidential candidate Panfilo Lacson and vice presidential bet Tito Sotto.

Meanwhile, Castriciones intends to review Republic Act 6657, or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, if he wins a Senate seat. He said the law failed to uplift the lives of farmers since it was passed in 1988.

For instance, the former Agrarian Reform chief cited the problems posed by the distribution of collective certificates of land ownership award (CLOA), where many farmers own a certain portion of the awarded land in one CLOA title.

The farmers were at a loss because they don’t know which portion of the land is theirs,” said Castriciones, who served as the head of the Department of Agrarian Reform from 2017-2021.

Castriciones also said that eventually, farmers lost their lands because of their inability to pay amortizations in government banks.

“Farmers cannot even attain loans from financial institutions, and that is the reason why they’re not able to really develop those lands,” said Castriciones, one of ruling political party PDP-Laban. He recently expressed support for the presidential run of Manila Mayor Isko Moreno.

Both Piñol and Castriciones said they will push for laws that will promote food sufficiency to help the country’s economic growth and recover amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have to achieve full sufficiency, and to do that, we have to protect the remaining 6% forest cover of this country,” Piñol said.