The Marcos administration vowed to raise the domestic farm output while maintaining the government’s rice import policy to better manage consumer prices, the Department of Fiannce (DOF) said.

In a statement, Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the national government would closely coordinate with the local government units (LGUs) to help attain President Marcos’ goal of increasing production in the agriculture sector.

Diokno explained that LGUs have the financial capability to boost food production in the wake of  the implementation of the Supreme Court ruling that increased their share in the national tax collections.

In the Mandanas-Garcia petition on the internal revenue allotment (IRA) of LGUs, the high court ruled that the share of the LGUs should come from 40 percent of all national taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs.

“Under the current setup, the agriculture extension work is the responsibility of the local governments. So maybe, coordination with the local governments which incidentally have a lot more money now because of the Mandanas ruling,” Diokno said.

“So there will be, maybe, a friendly competition among the local governments to boost agricultural products,” he added.

The IRA share of LGUs came only from the taxes collected by the BIR under the old system. With the implementation of the Supreme Court ruling, the IRA was renamed as the National Tax Allotment (NTA).

Data from the Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) showed that the total current operating income of LGUs rose by 19.4 percent in the first quarter of 2022 alone to P319.42 billion, compared to the P267.55 billion in the same period of 2021. 

The BLGF attributed the increase to the implementation starting this year of the Supreme Court ruling on the Mandanas-Garcia case.

Meanwhile, Diokno also noted that while the demand for certain food products exceeds supply, the government will continue to import them.

Increasing agricultural production and importation will “go hand in hand” in ensuring the stability of the supply and prices of food, Diokno explained.

President Marcos Jr., who has decided to head the Department of Agriculture at this time, had announced that the government will continue its policy of importation as a price stabilization measure while quickly proceeding with plans to increase production and efficiency in the agriculture sector.“

been looking into the individual subsectors, such as rice, corn, high-value crops, and fish. They have to look at each of these subsectors to increase production in the agricultural sector,” Diokno said.