RICE watch group Bantay Bigas and the National Federation of Peasant Women (Amihan) have asked President Duterte to veto the rice tariffication bill which will lapse into law on February 15.
The two groups asked the President to protect the country’s food security for the interest of poor consumers and producers.
The groups warned that the bill will allow the unabated entry of imported rice into the local market and wipe out local production, displacing many rice farmers.
The country’s capacity to produce our its food will be totally devastated by the law.
"This will destroy Philippine rice and agriculture, and more hungry people, simply means, more intensified social unrest in the countryside and urban centers,” Zenaida Soriano, Amihan National chairperson, said.
“Importation will not provide poor Filipinos cheaper rice, private importers are profit-oriented and the era of competition has long been defunct, they will eventually cartelize themselves, thus, resulting high retail prices,” Cathy Estavillo, Bantay Bigas spokesperson, said.
She added that this bill will destroy the P350-billion rice industry and threaten the livelihood of farmers who cultivated more than 19 million metric tons in 2017.
“Rice is the staple crop of Filipinos, undermining it is treason or betrayal of the people,” she said.
She added that the country had the miserable experience of the impact of the entry of the imported rice, as dictated by the World Trade Organization – Agreement on Agriculture since 1995.
It resulted into bankruptcies and displacement of local rice farmers and eventual conversion of productive rice lands. On the other hand, it never caused the lowering down of retail prices of rice, according to Estabillo.
“The only solution to the rice crisis is securing farmers on their lands, via genuine agrarian reform, and supporting them under an authentic rice development program,” she said.
The groups said that the attainment of rice food security and self-sufficiency have been the working philosophies of house bills Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) and Rice Industry Development Act (RIDA) authored by Anakpawis Party-list Representative Ariel “Ka Ayik” Casilao.