THE PHILIPPINE 3'

FRIDAY I SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

House probes 2020.

rice cartels,
smaggling
By JESS DIAZ
The House of Representatives
will look into reports of rampant
rice smuggling and the existence
of cartels that control the procure-
ment, importation and sale of the
basic staple.
House Resolution No. 332, filed
by party-list group Magsasaka,
prompted the investigation.
Other groups belonging to the
leftist Makabayan bloc pioposed the
passage of a supplemental budget of
P15 billion to help farmers affected
by low palay prices.
fhe proposaf contained in a reso-
lution, followed ihe filing of a similar
measure by House members belong-
ing to the Liberal Parg for the alloca-
tion of available funds amounting
_ Turn lo Page 2
HOUSO FromPasel
. "Imported rice entering the counlry
through legal and illegal m-ears confinue
to flood ihe loca.l market, depriving the
govemment of billions in taxesand killing
our rice farmels as well" he said.
He said cartels and tladers (ontrol the
sale of imported rice in the market to keep
prices high, while offering low prices for
the farmers' palay produie.
'Pl$B supplemental
budget for NFA
Under the Makabayan resolution, the
I15 billion would be given to the Na-
tional Food AuthoritylNFA) to enable
the agency to buy paliy at P20 a kilo and
\ell the same as riLe at P27 to prop up
the price of palay and force do*n ietail
pdces of rice.
The Liberal Party version would a1r-
thorize the govemment to use P13 billion
for cash grants to farmers.
The supplemental fund for the NFA
being pushed by lawmakers will help
the agency procuie at least 75Q000 meiric
tons of palay from local farmers, NFA
administrator Judy Dansal said.
"It will favor the NFA if that will be
granted," Dansal said. "!{e can buy more
volume of palay and serve more farmers.-
- Local farmgate prices of palay have
been dropping since the impli:mentation
of the Rice Tariffication law in March.
, With Lhe higherbuying price for palay,
the NFA removed the add-on incentive
payments to {armer5.
.Chona Maramba, NFA Westem pan-
gasinan assistant manager, said the
agency would buy dry and clean palay
. at a higher price of P19 per kilo, brit th-e
cash incentive would be dropped.
She said the production cbit of pday
is around Pl2 per kilo and with the new
buying price, farmers will eam P7 com-
pared to P5.
The old incentive scherire includes
payment of P3perkiJo
buffer stock fee,
as
P0.20 for d,ryrng, P0.20 for ddivery and
additional P0.30 as cdoperative develop-
ment fee for qualified recipients.
Gash glrants
Deputy Speakers Mikee Romero of
I -Pacman and Mu jiv Hataman of Basilan
proposed that rice farmers be included in
the govemment'_s cash transfer program.
Romero said the cash assistance iould
allow farmers suffering from low palay
. prices to recoup part of their losses.
FIe said billions in revenues from rice
imports could be used to beefup funding
for the program.
Last week, the NFA Council agreed
to fix the buying price for clean an"cl dry
palay with 14 percent moisture content
at P19 per kilo and wet palay with 30
percent moisture content at Pl4 pel kilo.

to P13 billion for farmers. ^ 9:::d o.n fiBures from the-phiiippine . If is one of two measures appioved by
the council to cut down the ieiail price's
Statistics Authority (PSA), fie aveiage
Assistant minority leader Magsasaka of rice and sustain jts local palay-birying
Rep. ArgelJoseph Ca6atbat told thi week- price of palay fell 4.4 percent to P15.58 operauons.
lv Parti-list Cbalition forum yesterday per kilo as of end-August. The NFA Council also resolved to flood
that deipite the uruegulated imPortation ' Agricultu re 'Secretary William Dar
oi .i." una"t u new liw, cartels'con tinue
' Metro Manila and other markets nation-
echo6d Dansal's sentiments, saying the wide with 3.6 million SO-kilogram bags
to smuggle the staple. additional P15-billion budget would help o{ rice, m.aking up NFA otdimporte'd
"Rici-smuggling and cartels do not with the procurement of palay from local
9
stocks valued at P4.86 billion. proceeds
only deny the government of revenue farmers. from the sale of old stocks cair be used
but also Put Poor "This will help the NFA buY moie to procure palay from farrners.
FiliPino famiiies -
Catherine Talaver4 Rhod!na Villanuev4
With
palay," he said.
on the edge of hun- Eva Visperas
ger and poverty,"
Cabatbat said.
. PalaypdceuP
\ 7/ro6t- PAq€')
Farmers said the Depaftmmt of Agdctjl-
He said the law ture (DA) should ensure that palay prices
liberalizing rice im- would not go down further when it releases
portation Provided larse volume of rice in the market.
that imports are bu, unnounced that the DA would
levied a 35-Percent bring down rice prices to P27 Per kilo
tariff, but this has by fl-ooding lhe nrarket with 3.6 million
not benefited con- bigs of rice and increase palay price to
sumers and farm- P15 from P17 per kilo for clean and dry.
ers. The NFA sat Oct. 10 as a ddadline to
"Rice Prices re-
dispose of the 3.6 million sacks of rice in
main high, while its warehouses,
oalav orices have "It took the DA almost a month be{ore
iallin'to. record deci ding to rclease the rice ihat is equivalen t
lows," he said. to 10 divs of stock. Since farmers will har-
Cabatbat said vest eariv this September-October, the DA
the House would might u{e it as an ercuse not to buy palay
begin its inquiry af- from farmers," KiJusang Magbubukid ng
terpassing the Pro- Pilipinas chairman Danilo Ramos said.
poded P4 l-trillion
irationalbudget {or