LIBERALIZED...

“It took the strong political will of the President for rice tariffication to finally happen for the benefit of our consumers,” he added.

With rice made affordable through the RTL, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) estimates that three years from now, the proportion of malnourished children and population at risk of hunger in the country would be reduced by 2.8 percent and 15.4 percent, respectively.

These estimates are equivalent to around 2.1 million less people at risk of hunger and malnutrition, the NEDA said.

In 2018 before the RTL took effect, the retail price of regular-milled rice (RMR) spiked to PHP46.04 per kg. After RTL, the average price of this rice variety went down to PHP39.13 as of April 2022, or cheaper by PHP6.91 per kg.

Another key benefit of RTL is the flow of billions of pesos in funds to the agriculture sector through the creation of the PHP10-billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), which is used exclusively to finance programs that will sharpen the competitiveness of palay growers by way of providing them with easy access to fertilizer, farm machinery and equipment, high-yield seeds and cheap credit; and offering them skills training programs on farm mechanization and modern farming techniques.

Under the RTL, all import duties collected from rice imports beginning March 5, 2019 go to the RCEF and other agriculture modernization programs.

In the first four months of 2022 alone, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) already collected PHP6.6 billion in duties from rice imports, which is already two-thirds of the PHP10 billion earmarked annually for RCEF.

The National Food Authority (NFA) monopolized rice importations before the

RTL, with a few private traders granted import permits that enabled them to control the price and supply of rice through hoarding and other manipulative practices.

With RTL, the role of the NFA has been limited to ensuring emergency rice stocks exclusively procured from local palay growers.

Dominguez said that with rice tariffication, the government was able to handle the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis “with strength on the food security front.”

He said that despite logistical restrictions resulting from the mobility restrictions or lockdowns imposed nationwide to protect people and communities from the pandemic, the government was able to sustain the flow of produce from local farms to Filipino consumers.

The agriculture sector was “one of the brightest spots” of the Philippines' response to the pandemic owing in large part to the RTL, Dominguez added.