A Makabayan lawmaker today questioned the Department of Agriculture (DA) move to import 300,000 metric tons (MT) amid the harvest season.
"Ngayon ay season ng anihan sa bansa. Dahil din tag-ulan pa, hirap na hirap na pababain ng mga magsasaka ng palay ang moisture content ng kanilang produktong bigas (It's harvest season now in the country. And since it's also the rainy season, palay farmers find it difficult to dry their rice crops)," Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Eufemia Cullamat said during the Makabayan Bloc's weekly virtual press conference.
"Tapos ay mababalitaan natin ang 300,000 metriko toneladang importasyon ng DA para diumano sa estableng buffer stock? Dalawang milyong metriko tonelada na ang nakapasok sa bansa ngayong taon. Napakalaking kumpetensya na ito sa lokal na produksyon (Now we learn that DA imported 300,000 MT of rice supposedly to stabilize buffer stock? Two million MT of rice have already entered the country this year. This presents a huge competition for the local production)," Cullamat said.
Palay or rice crops must be dried first before it can be processed to produce rice – the staple food of Filipinos. It's always a race against time to dry wet palay because they may potentially rot if not dried immediately.
Adding to Filipino farmers' hardships is the low farm gate price of palay, which stood at a measly P12 per kilo as of end September. It is said to be the break even amount, meaning there is no more profit margin.Farmers' groups, particularly the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura and Federation of Free Farmers, expect farm gate price to drop further once peak harvest is achieved later this month.
Ideally, the government, the National Food Authority (NFA), should procure palay from local farmers for buffer stock purposes.
"Naghihikahos na ang sarili nating magsasaka sa labis na pambabarat ng mga trader sa kanilang produkto. Rice liberalization ang nagpalala nito (Our poor farmers have had to deal with the low-balling of traders for their products. This was worsened by rice liberalization)," Cullamat said, referring to Republic Act (RA) 11203 or the Rice Tarrification Law.
Enacted in February 2019, the controversial law did away with the old quantitative restrictions or limits on rice imports in exchange for tariffs, liberalizing the entry of imported rice into the county.
"Mahalin naman natin ang sarili nating tagalikha ng pagkain. Ibasura na natin ang Rice Liberalization Law (Let us love our own food producers. Let's junk the Rice Liberalization Law)," she said.