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Amending the Rice Tarrification Law this way is not the solution lawmakers think it is. It will unleash evils already successfully banished before.
When the Rice Tariffication Law was passed on Valentine’s Day 2019, it was heralded by economists as a much-needed reform.
Fast forward to 2024, the same graph shows that rice’s contribution to inflation has spiked once more. In fact, rice is the main reason why inflation is creeping up again lately: partly because of a spike of global rice prices, and the especially dry El Niño season. According to House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the President’s cousin, undoing the RTL this way will “bring about tangible reductions in rice prices” to about P30 per kilo . He says this will be “a crucial step towards ensuring food security and economic stability.”
When such an emergency is declared, the NFA will be authorized to use its existing inventory for buffer stocks to “supply areas where the extraordinary increase in prices or acute shortages in supply occur.” The bill provides as well that the NFA’s rice distribution shall be done only at government agencies; registered retail outlets, organized women’s groups, and cooperatives; outlets run by registered and accredited consumer groups and associations; and Kadiwa stores.
In the worst scenario, the NFA “shall be granted the authority to directly import rice, subject to the explicit authorization from the Secretary of Agriculture” – but only when shortages are dire.To a previous RTL provision lifting barriers to imports, this provision was added: “except in cases of food security emergencies as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture.”
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