Senator Cynthia A. Villar asked the Department of Agriculture (DA) on Monday, Oct. 21, to allocate P7 billion to finance the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) under the proposed 2025 national budget.
She said this as she wrapped up the Senate finance subcommittee's hearing of the agency’s proposed P200.19 billion budget for 2025 and deemed it submitted for plenary deliberations.
“I will ask the DA and the mother committee to give me P7 billion to finance the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund because they brought tariff on rice from 35 percent to 15 percent,” Villar explained.
"There's a shortage of P7 billion so I want the DA to put that in the budget so that we will have P30 billion for RCEF," she added.
To recall, Villar sponsored the extension and amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), or Republic Act No. 11203, that created the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) from tariffs collected on imported rice.
This also includes increasing the annual appropriation to P30 billion from P10 billion for the RCEF, which will be distributed to farmers in the form of modern machinery, inbred seeds, training, and financial assistance.
Villar, who also chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform, presented in plenary on Sept. 25 the Bicameral Conference Report on the disagreeing provisions of Senate Bill No. 2779 and House Bill No. 10381, also known as the proposed Agricultural Tariffication Act.
On the same day, the Senate ratified the Bicameral Report on the Proposed Agricultural Tariffication Act which is set to be signed by President Marcos.
Aside from this, Villar also addressed some of DA's requests in its wishlist regarding its budget. She said that they would allow P50 million for the Rubber Institute subject to the negotiation with the mother committee.
For the Bureau of Animal Industry, they will source their funds from the proposed Livestock Bill as well as the support to food safety, for the Philippine Carabao Center and the National Dairy Authority.
This also goes for the Bureau of Plant Industry which will get its funding from the proposed Corn Bill.
In terms of the support to sustainable management of major agricultural crops, Villar said they will retain the existing budget and it will not be transferred to the funding for high-value crops.
On the other hand, Villar said that the proposed National Fisheries Research and Development Study is rejected except for the salt fund which will be derived from tariffs on imported salt.