Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan urged local government units (LGUs) to be more proactive in setting a floor price for government purchase of unhusked rice or "palay" as he works with Malacañang and the Department of Agriculture (DA) in drafting an executive order (EO) to stabilize the commodity and raise farmers’ incomes.

In a recent meeting with the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), the senator said that he was seeking the issuance of two EOs on the government purchases of wet and dry palay with a minimum floor price.

“So, what we intend to do—the process is by Thursday, we will finalize a working draft of the EO. But that working draft will then be presented to selected governors next week with (DA) Secretary Kiko (Laurel) and myself and the office of (DAR) Sec. Conrad,” he added.

The senator, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and on Agrarian Reform, also aims to “get additional reinforcements” from LGU officials regarding their insights and comments on the possible EO that h3 expects President Marcos to sign.

However, the senator also made some clarifications on the concerns of the private sector that setting a floor price for wet and dry palay will affect their own processes.

“Of course, we are clarifying because there is some confusion. Akala nung iba (Others think) this is the floor price for palay for everyone. We don’t want to intervene in the market, the private sector,” he stressed.

“This is really just for the government,” he added, as he pointed out that the private sector may also follow suit once the government starts buying palay.

Setting a floor price for palay will stabilize the incomes of farmers, who have been forced to sell their harvested goods for an average of P7.66 per kilo—way below the production cost of P13.51 per kilo—because of abusive traders and middlemen.

Pangilinan cited the cases of the Camarines Sur Multipurpose Cooperative, the Sorsogon LGU, and Valenzuela City.

He recalled that it was during the Covid-19 pandemic when. 13 LGUs bought rice directly from the Camarines Sur Multipurpose Cooperative. This raised their sales from a measly P7 million in 2019 to P62 million by the third quarter of 2020.

In Sorsogon, traders were forced to buy palay for P23 per kilo from the previous P13 a kilo after the local government purchased it at P20 per kilo. For the senator, this proved his point that traders can pay the farmers more if there was competition with the local government itself.

He also pointed out how Valenzuela City saved P15 per kilo of rice after purchasing it directly from farmers. This maximizes the government’s budget, thus helping more of the city’s constituents, and improving the income of farmers.