The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Monday, Sept. 23, said it is determining if rice importers may face legal liability for container vans of imported rice that have been "overstaying" at the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) for several weeks.
Recently, the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) confirmed that 888 shipping containers, holding 20 million kilograms of rice, are currently stored in the container yards of Manila ports. Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. had earlier called on the PPA to expedite the movement of nearly a thousand container vans filled with imported rice.
“Itsi-check muna namin. On the part ng DA, kasi kami ang concern namin sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances, so kung walang problema doon, isang way namin dito, tingnan on the policy side (We'll check it first. As for the DA, our concern is the sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances, so if there are no issues with that, one of the ways we address this is by reviewing it from a policy perspective),” Assistant Secretary Arnel De Mesa, the spokesperson of the DA, said when asked if importers will be held liable.
He said the agriculture department has already identified the consignee of the imported rice.
“So, part ito ng pag-review namin ngayon (So, this is part of our ongoing review) So, we will let you know,” the DA official told the media.
Meanwhile, PPA General Manager Jay Daniel Santiago three containers of the said 888 shipping containers have been claimed by the respective consignees.
“Dahil sa ating pagsisiwalat ng mga overstaying containers po diyan ng bigas, over the weekend lamang po ay nasa tatlondaang containers po ang na-pullout na ng mga kaniya-kaniyang consignees nito (Due to our disclosure of the overstaying rice containers, just over the weekend, around 300 containers were pulled out by their respective consignees),” he said.
“And we look forward na sa mga darating pa pong mga araw hanggang katapusan po ng buwang ito ay tuluyan pa pong mababawasan iyong mga overstaying containers natin diyan na naglalaman ng bigas (And we look forward to the coming days until the end of this month, hoping that the number of our overstaying containers containing rice will continue to decrease).”
Jayson Cainglet, the executive director of farmers' group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG), questioned why the Imported rice is being released and why no charges have been filed if hoarding was indeed involved.
Meanwhile, SINAG and former DA secretary, Leonardo Montemayor, doubts that the 20 million kilos of imported rice has any impact on market prices.
“Puro optimistic promises, but in the end; importers and foreign rice farmers lang ang nakinabang (All optimistic promises, but in the end, only importers and foreign rice farmers benefited),” said Cainglet.
Montemayor had earlier told National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arnesio Balisacan should explain to the public why the NEDA-backed Executive Order (EO) No. 62 “failed” to decrease the retail price of rice in the market.
The former DA chief noted that 96 percent of the imported rice arrivals are already out in the market.
SINAG had also reported that local farmers are now complaining about the ₱4 to ₱5 per kilo decrease in the farmgate price of “palay (unmilled rice).”
On June 20, President Marcos enacted EO 62, lowering rice tariffs from 35 percent to 15 percent. This led to the influx of imported rice into the country.