Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte (Facebook)

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte has challenged those opposing the Palace-ordered 20 percent tariff rate reduction on rice imports to put forward better options in the bid to reduce retail prices of rice. 

Villafuerte noted that the advocacy groups that intend to take legal action to block the proposed tariff reduction from the current 35 percent to just 15 percent, “seem to forget that our farmers themselves will benefit from lower rice prices because they, too, are heavy consumers of this food staple". 

President Marcos is expected to release an executive order (EO) soon regarding the tariff cut, which is seen as part of the administration's effort to pull down rice prices to at least P29 per kilo. 

Villafuerte says the groups planning to block the proposed EO should not just oppose the proposal, “but must present a doable and immediate option to slash market prices of rice without having to reduce import tariffs". 

“I understand that these groups are objecting to the planned EO on fears that any rate cut would make smaller the earmarked RCEF funds for the rice subsector, but they actually have no reason to worry about because future collections from import tariffs are not expected to fall below the annual outlay of P10 billion for RCEF,” he said. 

RCEF stands for Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund. 

Villafuerte said that on top of the RCEF budget, President Marcos has committed to raise public spending on intervention programs to raise palay (unhusked rice) productivity and lift farmers from poverty. 

In fact, the Department of Agriculture ( DA) is proposing to more than double its annual budget to over P500 billion for 2025–of which P294 billion will be set aside for the palay subsector. 

“And I am inclined to support in the Congress that proposed budget hike,” said the Bicolano.