Piñol rebuffed over remarks on rice tariff bill

Senators yesterday rebuffed Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol on his claim that the looming enactment of the Rice Tariffication Bill into law would prevent the National Food Authority (NFA) from selling the staple at cheap prices.

Piñol previously said NFA would stop selling P27 per kilo rice once the law on rice tariffication is enacted.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III expressed suspicion that some personalities behind the so-called rice cartel are making a last-ditch effort to prevent the bill from being signed into law as it seeks to clip the powers of the NFA that apparently is under their influence.

“Of course there would be some traders who may be influencing the NFA…I think he (Piñol) should look at the computation first,” Sotto told reporters.

Malacañang yesterday said President Duterte is expected to sign the rice tariffication bill into law at anytime.

Duterte had certified the passage of the rice tariffication bill as urgent, saying the measure would ensure adequate rice supply, lower prices and prevent hoarding.

The measure, principally authored by Sen. Cynthia Villar, seeks to replace the import quotas on rice with a 35 percent tariff. This is to avert sanctions from the World Trade Organization if the country does not do away with quantitative restrictions on rice and convert to tariff protection.

House of Representatives agriculture committee chairman and ANAC-IP party-list Rep. Jose Panganiban Jr. has said the rice tarrification bill would raise P20 billion in tariffs every year that could be used to support local farmers.

The bill also creates the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund consisting of an initial appropriation of P10 billion sourced from the national budget.

Half of the fund will be used as grants for farmers while 30 percent is allocated for modernization and the rest for training and credit.

“He (Duterte) will be signing that soon enough,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said at a press briefing yesterday.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III said the bill was meant to allow “competitors” for the NFA since the agency “has gotten too complacent, to put it mildly, given its monopoly power to import rice.”

“The NFA slept on the job so Congress took a radical step to wake up the NFA to the truth,” Pimentel said.

“The idea is to have low priced rice in the market through competition. Low priced rice doesn’t have to be NFA imported,” he added.