SOLON puSheS traNSpareNCy iN impLemeNtatiON Of riCe tariffiCatiON Law

AlAwmAker on Tuesday called for full transparency in the implementation of rice Tariffication Act, or republic Act (rA) 11203, by disclosing the identities of all rice importers.

Deputy majority leader ron Salo of kabayan party-list, a principal author of the new law, asked the Departments of Finance (DOF) and Agriculture to fully disclose the identities of each and every rice importer under the new system.

Salo, a member of the bicameral conference committee that finalized the revised Agricultural Tariffication, said transparency in the implementation will help determine rice supply sufficiency and price fairness.

“I call for transparency. every authorized rice importer, the rice quantities, origin, prices, import duties paid, freight forwarders, and location of all rice warehouses should always be fully disclosed to the public,” said Salo.

“The finance department and the Department of Agriculture can do this through their official web sites and socialmedia accounts. This level of disclosure can be included in the implementing rules and be part of their regular briefings to the media,” he added.

According to Salo, the disclosed information will aid the general public, the rice farmers in determining the sufficiency of rice supply, the fairness of selling prices, and compliance with the rice tariffication law.

He said transparency shall also assist the Bureau of Customs in determining the correct duties that must be paid.

“The Department of Finance and the Department of Agriculture can also seize this opportunity to work with the financial markets on finally establishing the longdelayed plans of the DA on having an agricultural commodities market similar to the wholesale electricity Spot market or weSm,” Salo said.

Catastrophe

AS peasant groups continue to protest the recently enacted rice tariffication law, Anakpawis Party-list rep. Ariel Casilao warned that the said the newly enacted law would cause a catastrophe to the agriculture sector and even to the national economy.

“The law will literally smash down the country’s value of palay production that reached last year to more than P350 billion to P380 billion, and it is synonymous to the evaporation of sources of income to millions of farmers and other stakeholders in the country,” he said in a news statement.

Casilao also belittled the“pointless excuse” of the Duterte administration that the law had safety nets for local farmers such as the rice Competitiveness enhancement Fund (rCeF) at P10 billion annually.

On march 5, 15 days after President Duterte’s signing of the law and the supposed date of its publication, the lawmaker vowed to file a bill for its repeal.

For their part, ACT Teachers reps. Antonio Tinio and France Castro said that the tariffication law will abandon 3.6 million rice farmers and rice farm workers and their families through heavy importation of the primary agricultural product and staple food.

“The enactment of the rice tariffication law will be another broken promise by the Duterte administration as this measure will only worsen poverty and hunger and will only cater monopoly traders whose primary mission in life is to profit,” Tinio said.

Castro said “the rice Tariffication Act was the Duterte administration’s purported solution to the record high inflation rates in the country. [But] this measure unfortunately will not solve the continuing rice crisis and high inflation and will only lead to bigger and more problems in the future for our fellow Filipinos especially rice farmers and workers.”

Clarification on tariff implementation date

THe DOF, meanwhile, has clarified that the implementation of tariffs on rice imports will begin on march 5, instead of march 3, as provided under the rice tariffication law.

The DOF issued the clarification after it reported on monday that the implementation of the tariffs on rice imports, in line with the signing of rA 11203 by President Duterte over the weekend, would start on march 3.

The National Food Authority Council on monday held a meeting at the DOF headquarters to immediately discuss the implementing rules and regulations (of rA 11203, or the rice Tariffication Act, following the signing of the law by the President.

“It’s march 5. The provisions of the law are pretty clear,” said Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III in a text message to financial reporters.