News Roundup 16 August 2022
Aug 16, 2022 • 5 min Read
Arguments to repeal rice tariffication: Prices still high but farmers poorer | INQUIRER.NET – The Rice Tariffication Act (RTA) was signed in 2019 to reduce the price of rice and supposedly help farmers who would be hurt by the removal of quantitative restrictions on imported rice. The National Economic Development Authority (Neda) had said that the law addressed the needs of consumers for low-cost rice, while assisting farmers through the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, which was supposed to generate excess tariff income for programs to help farmers. But why are farmers now demanding a repeal of the law, which former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua had described as the “best model that we have to help both farmers and consumers”? Last Wednesday (Aug. 10), the National Movement for Food Sovereignty (NMFS) and the Alliance for Resilience, Sustainability and Empowerment (Arise) launched a campaign to amend and then finally repeal the RTA. NMFS and Arise, groups that envision sustainable, resilient and empowered communities, said that three years since the law was passed, “our domestic market has now been flooded with imported rice.” Last year, the Philippines imported 2.98 million tons of rice—40 percent or 1.2 million tons arrived during the wet (main) harvest season, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) said. But in 2019, as the country beat China as the world’s biggest rice importer with three million metric tons, palay prices went down to as low as P12 a kilo from P19 to P20 a kilo in 2018. The United States’ Department of Agriculture-Foreign Agricultural Services had said that the increase in the volume of imported rice was because of the enactment of the RTA, which paved the way for the entry of more imported rice. Republic Act No. 11203, which was signed by then President Rodrigo Duterte on Feb. 14, 2019, replaced quantitative restrictions—a ceiling on volume—on imported rice with tariffs of 35 to 40 percent. Back in 2019, while the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said that the average price of regular milled and well-milled rice had already gone down to P37.22 and P41.89 a kilo, the average farm gate palay price fell to an eight-year low. NMFS and Arise said farmers had already warned of the dire consequences of the RTA, stressing that commercial traders have been able to import rice even without permit from the National Food Authority (NFA). This, as the law required commercial traders only to comply with the sanitary and phytosanitary regulations of the Department of Agriculture (DA), which is needed for the issuance of import clearance. Mario de Guzman, a farmer in Cagayan province, told INQUIRER.net that this year, while he is yet to harvest his crops, with a P15 a kilo farm gate palay price, he could expect nothing but losses. “Now that I have not yet harvested my hybrid palay, I already had P154,000 in expenses for two hectares. Then during the harvest, I would need to pay P30 per cavan for caretella service,” he said, referring to a mode of transporting his harvest. De Guzman said he could harvest an average of 200 cavans this wet (main) season, but it would only mean P150,000 in income. Back in 2018, when the average farm gate palay price was P20.14 a kilo, 200 cavans translated to P201,400.
Lawmakers, enforcers want ‘community-based’ campaign vs drugs | PHILSTAR.COM – Law enforcement agencies urged the Senate to pass laws institutionalizing the barangay drug-clearing program of the Duterte administration’s “war on drugs”, saying a “whole-of-nation approach” similar to the anti-insurgency campaign would help end the drug problem in the country. At Tuesday’s organizational meeting of the Senate Public Order and Dangerous Drugs panel, lawmakers supportive of the drug war urged the national government to address what they said were the root causes of drug use. Neophyte Sen. Robin Padilla called it a “painful fact” that even local government units were involved in the entry of illegal drugs into the country as he urged more “community-based” responses to the country’s drug problem. “Hindi naman makakalanding sa dagat kahit saan kung walang go signal ang local government,” he claimed, saying only communities would know who the pushers and addicts were in their areas and localities. (The drugs will not land in any of our waters without the go signal of the local government) “These are big syndicates. If we compare your budget to theirs, maybe yours would only be a fourth of theirs,” he said, addressing the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. Per figures from Real Numbers PH, the Duterte administration’s “unitary report” on the gains of the war on drugs, there were over 10,000 barangays yet to be cleared of illegal drugs by the time Duterte stepped down from office at the end of June. PDEA Director General Wilkins Villanueva told the Senate panel Tuesday that the number now stands at 9,693 drug-affected barangays around the country. Real Numbers, which aggregates data from the Philippine National Police, Dangerous Drugs Board, and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency also acknowledged 6,252 “persons who died during anti-drug operations.” The PNP has regularly attributed the deaths to “nanlaban” narratives, claiming drug suspects violently resisted arrest and forced officers to act in self-defense. The Department of Justice is reviewing anti-drug operations that resulted in deaths and irregularities have led to some cases being filed in court.
Caution urged over infra talks with China amid West Philippine Sea issue | PHILSTAR.COM – More economic and infrastructure project deals with China may “further compromise” the Philippines’ position in the West Philippine Sea, a fisherfolk group said Tuesday. An infrastructure think tank meanwhile said that government must make sure China loans are competitive if talks on funding for infrastructure should continue. “We demand that any negotiations with China be suspended until the latter leave the West Philippine Sea and respect the rights of Filipino fishers and vessels in our territorial waters,” PAMALAKAYA National Chairperson Fernando Hicap said in a statement on Tuesday. Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista met with Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian last week where they “agreed to restart negotiations for major transport projects” as well as possible maritime cooperation projects between the two countries. This included major railway projects previously reported terminated, such as the Philippine National Railway South Long Haul Project or the PNR Bicol, the Subic-Clark Railway Project, and the Mindanao Railway.
