Farmers excluded…

This, as he admitted that there was indeed a misunderstanding between the DA and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) about the initial amount of 15 billion that was supposedly injected to RCEF as early as December.

Former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said in February that 15 billion has already been released under the 2018 national budget to protect farmers from possible adverse effects of the lifting of the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) on rice. This, according to him, should be complementary to RCEF.

But Piñol clarified that the 15 billion went to the country’s National Rice Program but not to RCEF.

“I told them it couldn’t be considered as part of RCEF because its allocation didn’t follow the RCEF guidelines,” Piñol said. “Once the IRR takes effect, we will insist that we should get the whole 10 billion for RCEF because that is in the law”.

Piñol said that the RCEF is included in the “unprogrammed” budget of DA for this year.

“As the official solely responsible for supervising the utilization of the RCEF, I assure the Filipino rice farmers that the interventions covered by the RCEF will be delivered as soon as the funds are released,” he further said.

Bulk of RCEF, or about 15 billion, will go to Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech) primarily to help mechanize the rice sector as well as reduce post-harvest losses. Some will go to Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) for seed distribution.

In March, PHilMech Deputy Director Raul Paz said even if RCEF will be made available this month, his agency — used to handling only 1200 million to 1300 million budget every year — could not immediately distribute machineries all over the country.

Before PhilMech could spend such allocation, Paz said his agency would first need to hire more people, get more vehicles for effective transportation, and expand its procurement unit.