Senator Cynthia Villar (Senate PRIB)

Amending Republic Act (RA) No.11203 or the Rice Tarrification Law (RTL) will help poor Filipinos get access to cheaper rice.

Deputy Majority Leader Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre and Deputy Majority Leader Isabela 6th district Rep. Faustino “Inno” Dy had this to say to Senator Cynthia Villar after she opposed the proposed amendments to the RTL.

No less than House Speaker Martin Romualdez is leading the charge in tweaking the 2019 to once again allow the National Food Authority (NFA) to directly sell relatively cheaper rice to the market.

This return of "NFA rice" will result to rice that will only cost around P30, Romualdez said.

On Thursday, Villar, the Senate Committee on Agriculture chairperson, shot down the idea and said that it could revive corruption in NFA.

Acidre says that preventing possible corruption should not mean denying people the opportunity to buy rice from NFA, especially since ir is significantly cheaper than prevailing retail prices

“I think there are more effective mechanisms to reduce the prevalence of corruption, the likelihood of corruption other than taking away the access of the poor to more affordable rice,” he said.

“Ultimately, ang layunin naman natin ay magkaroon ng access sa mas murang bigas ang ating mga kababayan. I think it is fundamental for government to ensure na ang pinaka mahirap, pinaka-vulnerable sa ating pamayanan ay magkaroon ng pagkain sa kanilang hapag kainan," he added,

Dy, who hails from a major rice-producing province, says he supports the return of NFA’s market intervention mandate.

“NFA acts, as before, it acts as a safety net para po sa ating mga kababayan. Not only that, it becomes a price regulation tool. By allowing NFA to do its function like before, magkakaroon na tayo ng mas mababang presyo ng bigas sa merkado (we will have cheaper rice in the market)," he explained.

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"Hopefully that will lower the prices of other competing well-milled rice, other types of rice,” Dy said.

Responding to Villar's concerns about corruption in NFA, Dy says safeguards could be included in the amendments to RTL, which are now being discussed by the House Committee on Agriculture and Food.

“Now that we are crafting a new law, or amendments to the RTL law, we can introduce kung ano po ‘yung mga kinakailangan na amendments para pagandahin po natin ‘yung sistema...so meron mga improvements na kailangan talagang gawin at i-introduce.

(We can introduce whatever amendments are needed to improve the system...so there are really improvements that really need to be made and introduced.)

"But it doesn’t mean that we should not entertain the idea of introducing the NFA function again kasi kinakailangan nga pong may ganito tayong paraan para may access din po ang ating mga kababayan sa mas murang bigas,” he stressed.

(Because we need to have this way of providing our countrymen with access to cheaper rice.)

Rice is the staple food of Filipinos.