(Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Expect prices of rice to drop this coming 2025.

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. Lray Villafuerte gave this fearless forecast as he hailed President Marcos for signing into law Republic Act (RA) No. 12078 or the “Agricultural Tariffication Act (ATA)".

“Restoring the government’s authority under the newly-signed RA 12078 to acquire more stocks and then sell them cheaper through Kadiwa stores and other government outlets is likely to put pressure on importers and/or grains traders to slash their retail prices," Villafuerte said in a statement on Monday, Dec. 9 

He said this action would lead to "more affordable rice in the local market for the benefit especially of poor and low-income consumers”. 

Villafuerte said the new law “tweaked the RTL (Rice Tariffication Law) of 2019 by putting back the government’s authority in emergency situations to purchase more rice stocks and sell them directly to consumers".

The Bicolano is an author of both the 2019 RTL and ATA.

Villafuerte said he hopes ATA would "reverse the current market trend of elevated prices of the staple food despite softening global prices coupled with the huge influx of stocks that importers had acquired at drastically reduced tariff rates".

RA No.12078 amended the RTL or RA 11203, which lifted in 2019 the authority of the National Food Authority (NFA) to import rice in favor of allowing private traders to purchase an unlimited volume of the staple overseas so long as they pay an import tariff of 35 percent.

In the event that the Department of Agriculture (DA) declares, upon the recommendation of the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC), a food supply emergency because of a rice shortage or “extraordinary” price spikes, Villafuerte said  the DA secretary is empowered to designate an entity in the department—except for the NFA—to import the grain and sell such stocks through Kadiwa outlets, government agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Office of Civil Defense-National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (OCD-NDRRMC) or local government units (LGUs).

Villafuerte said that allowing the NFA to buy more stocks from local farmers will ensure the sustainability of the DA’s P29 and Rice-for-All (RFA) programs, which require a fairly big inventory for the government to sell continuously cheaper rice to a huge number of poor and low-income families all over the country.

Under the DA’s P29 program, the NFA sells rice at P29 a kilo to vulnerable sectors such as senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiary-families; while its RFA program involves the sale of higher-quality rice to other consumers at the current P40 a kilo (previously at P45, and then lowered to P42).  

Villafuerte said that President Marcos’ enactment of RA No.12078 “restores certain trading functions of the NFA to sell more rice directly to consumers so it can hopefully stave off undue price spirals in the grain during emergency situations such as when prices are aberrantly high in the local market despite ample domestic  supply cornered by private businessmen".

“With rice accounting for a hefty share of the food expenses most especially of poor or low-income families, empowering the NFA to once again actively intervene in the market during emergency situations under RA No.12078 would make cheaper rice more accessible to our ordinary consumers and thus help take the edge off sticky inflation,” he explained. 

To reduce rice prices for consumers, President Marcos issued Executive Order (EO) No. 62 that cut the import tariff rate on the staple from 35 percent to just 15 percent effective last July.

Villafuerte recalled that following the issuance of EO 62, agriculture and finance officials said that the lower import cost for traders was expected to cut rice prices by an initial P6 to P7 per kilo in the latter part of 2024 or at the onset of 2025.

But these price cuts have yet to occur, and per-kilo rates remained at the P50 to P60 even as Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) data showed that traders had acquired a record volume of imports this 2024, part of which they had imported at the lower 15 percent tariff rate.