Farmers excluded from body tasked to oversee RCEF use

A group of farmers blasted the government for excluding Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF) in the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund's (RCEF) Program Steering Committee (PSC) in the final version of Rice Tariffication Law's Implementing Rules and Regulations.

“I simply cannot understand why the government does not want farmers in the PSC when we could contribute so much to the proper implementation of the RCEF. Farmers are not only beneficiaries of the fund, but should also be recognized as valuable partners of government in achieving food security and agricultural development," said Raul Montemayor, National Manager of the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF).

Under the Rice Tariffication Lawl, which will allow the entry of more imported rice into the country, an initial budget of 110 billion should automatically be injected to RCEF, which is where all the tariff to be collected from all the imported rice set to enter the country under a liberalized regime should go.

The fund will be used to make Filipino rice farmers competitive so they can produce equally cheaper rice.

Right now, the cost of producing rice in the Philippines stand at 112 per kilo, which is more than half of the production cost of Thai and Vietnamese rice farmers. Thus, making the locally produced rice more expensive than the imported supply.

Under the recently released IRR of the Rice Tariffication Law, PSC should be formed to “oversee and provide policy directions on the implementation of the programs funded by the Rice Fund, in accordance with the Philippine Industry Road Map.”

Montemayor, who is also the chairman PCAF, noted that the inclusion of PCAF representatives in the PSC was incorporated in the original drafts of the IRR.

“Nobody raised any objections to this proposal in the public consultations on the IRR. Government representatives who attended the consultations and drafting meetings did not express any reservations about farmer representatives in the PSC. So, we are both surprised and disappointed that this provision suddenly disappeared in the final version of the IRR," said Montemayor.

The PCAF is a network of national, regional, provincial and municipal agriculture and fishery councils where private stakeholders regularly dialogue and interact with the DA and other government agencies in the monitoring and evaluation of programs for farmers.

Montemayor added that it was very ironic that Rule 15.2 of the same IRR stipulated that the Rice Road Map should “include the participatory structure, mechanisms, modalities... for farmers to actively and meaningfully engage in the implementation of the Act".

He added that the proposal to include farmer representatives in the PSC was intended to avoid a repeat of the experience with the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF) where huge blocks of funds were cornered by relatively large business enterprises.

Montemayor argued that the PCAF, which operates under the Department of Agriculture (DA) structure, would have been the ideal vehicle for farmers to consolidate and relay their feedback on RCEF implementation to the steering committee. Based on the IRR of the Rice Tariffication Law, the DA is the sole agency tasked to handle and utilize RCEF.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol insisted the other day that once the IRR of the Rice Tariffication Law takes effect, there should be an upfront injection of 110 billion to the RCEF.