Senators on Monday, December 19 thanked President Marcos for extending the tariff rates for basic commodities such as rice and meat, especially during the holiday season and in light of the eight percent inflation as of November.

‘’However, this should not be adopted as a long-term policy; the more important thing to do i believe is to strengthen and continue modernizing our agricultural sector to ensure food security and sustainability, and at the same time, promote job creation in this sector. Not everyday is Christmas, and we need to put food on the table of every Filipino family the whole year round,’’ Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva said.

‘’We filed Senate Resolution No. 385 to investigate details on how the government can ensure food security as a sustainable policy by strengthening our agriculture and fisheries. Specifically, we need to review Republic Act No. 8435 or the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA) of 1997, so that we can update it based on the current socioeconomic realities and aim to make it future-proof,’’ he added.

Senator Joseph Victor ‘’JV’’ Ejercito said the President’s action is a welcome development to lower prices of basic commodities to lower also infation rate.

‘’It just has to be reviewed periodically,’’ he added.

Asked whether he shares the concerns of agriculture groups that this might adversely affect local farmers, Ejercito replied: ‘’Yes of course.’’

‘’I have always advocated food sufficiency. Passage of Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Law and Sugarcane Industry Development Act was authored by me. These are just temporary solutions,’’ he added.

Senator Francis ‘’Chiz’’ Escudero expressed hopes that the President’s decision would translate to lower prices,

Escudero said the President has the power to lower or increase tariff rates while Congress is in recess.

Senator Grace Poe acknowledged the efforts of the Marcos administration to bring down the costs of basic goods for our consumers.

However, Poe said there is a need to take an honest look at the President’s Executive Order No. 171 and see if it achieved its goals of lowering prices.

‘'For rice, the aim was to bring down the cost of rice from countries outside of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). Different agriculture groups have already pointed out that rice from outside of ASEAN, specifically Pakistan, can still come in at lower prices even without bringing down the tariff,’’ she said.

The Federation of Free Farmers and SINAG have also raised concerns on the revenue loss to government stemming from the bringing down of tariffs.

‘’For pork, did it really bring down prices? The issue last year was the volume of importation and the Senate had to step in for the concerns of hog raisers to be heard,’’Poe said.

The lady senator pointed to data from the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) showing that the inventory of imported pork is still 30-percent more than last year’s and remain above the 100,000 tons, and importers have said that they have been stockpiling ahead of the expiration of EO No. 171.

Poe said three is a need to see if there was profiteering. SINAG has been complaining of the drop in farmgate prices of pork yet retail prices were hardly moving.

‘’The extension of EO No. 171 now is no assurance that prices will go down soon as it is just extending what is,’’ she emphasized.

‘’We need to craft policies that take on a longer view of the situation with a wider perspective. Beyond consumer prices, we also need to look at this in its entirety—the challenges affecting local production, the friction costs, consumer preference, and the livelihood of our people,’’ she stressed

‘’Do we want to permanently depend on imported food products and subject food prices to fluctuations in the foreign exchange or do we want to be self-sufficient?,’ ’she asked.

Poe maintained that measures that bring down prices for consumers must go hand in hand with measures that would support food producers going forward.

Food producers are also consumers themselves and many of them have already taken a hit in the past two years, she pointed out.