Senator Raffy Tulfo has called for the review of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) as he expressed alarm that the future of the rice farming industry is in danger because of existing policies.
00:00Isabella is widely known as the rice bowl of the north.
00:04Its land area of about 1 million hectares is mostly dedicated to the production of our country's food staple, rice.
00:13Napakahalaga po sa ating mga Pilipino ang bigas.
00:16Sa katunayan, noong mga bata pa po tayo, sinasabihan tayo ng ating mga magulang na ubusin ang kanin
00:23dahil bawat butil na natira ay isang araw daw sa purgatorio.
00:30That's how much we value rice.
00:33And that is why I stand here before you.
00:36The future of our rice farming industry is in danger.
00:42And our farmers are losing up to 54 billion pesos because of existing policies.
00:49There are even reports from some farmers' groups of farmers' deaths,
00:55allegedly linked to low palay prices.
01:01The clamor for the review of the rice tarification law is more than just ripe.
01:08Malapit na pong mabulok.
01:10As of last week, Malacanang and the Department of Agriculture are pushing Congress to revisit
01:17the rice tarification law, or RTL, and give more regulatory functions to the National Food Authority.
01:25But before we delve into the review of the RTL, let us go back to the why of the RTL.
01:36The rice tarification law enacted in 2019 was a significant step toward liberizing the rice industry in the Philippines.
01:45It aimed to stabilize rice prices and ensure food security by allowing the unrestricted importation of rice subject to tariffs.
01:57The RTL opened the floodgates to largely unregulated rice imports by private traders and stripped the NFA or its regulatory functions
02:09and confined its role to maintaining a buffer stock sourced from local palay.
02:16But of course, the RTL did not forget our local farmers because the tariffs collected from the imported rice were directed to what we call
02:25the Rice Competitive Enhancement Fund, or RCEF, designed to help farmers modernize through mechanization, input subsidies, and financial assistance.
02:38In December of 2024, the RTL was amended to extend RCEF funding until 2031, and tripled its budget to 30 billion pesos.
02:51However, while the amendment authorized the DA to import rice in cases of food security emergency,
02:59it did not reinstate the NFA's full mandate to manage and stabilize the domestic rice market.
03:07So much work has been put into the enactment of the RTL.
03:11And while it had good intentions and ideas, something clearly went wrong along the way.
03:20Did our prices go down since its enactment?
03:24The answer is hindi po.
03:27The promise of lower rice prices to consumers has not been fully realized.
03:33While there have been periods of lower prices, of course, the overall impact on consumer prices has been mixed.
03:42Wholesale prices of rice types also showed significant increases in 2024, with regular milled rice experiencing the highest growth rate at 28.95 percent,
03:56rising from 36.48 pesos per kilogram in 2023 to 47.04 kilogram in 2024.
04:07Did our farmers' productivity improve?
04:10That's the big question.
04:13If the overall performance, halos wala pong nagbago.
04:21The influx of imported rice has led to a significant drop in the farm gate prices to locally produced rice.
04:29Our farmers who rely on rice farming for their livelihood are struggling to compete with the cheaper imported rice.
04:37This has resulted in reduced income for our farmers and has threatened their ability to sustain their farming operations.
04:47That's why, instead of making local production, it's only our importation.
04:51In fact, Philippine rice imports are projected to hit a record high of 5.5 million metric tons in 2026,
05:03exceeding the highest rice import volume of 4.8 million metric tons recorded in 2024.
05:11This will maintain the country's ranking as the world's biggest rice importer of this household staple.
05:20It is sad to see us in this situation when we once thrived in our own rice fields, even exporting to other nations many, many years ago.
05:30This is based on the estimate of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service.
05:37We must review the wisdom behind the lifting of the quantitative restriction on rice imports.
05:46Because, without the NFA's involvement in rice procurement, traders face no real competition, enabling them to drive down farm gate prices and control market rates.
06:00Mr. President, after more than five years, our rice farmers by now should have felt the effects of the RCEP.
06:09Pero, wala.
06:13Umaalma pa rin po ang ating mga pobring mga magsasaka.
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