Villar hits DA’s paltry subsidy to farmers

Senator Cynthia Villar lashed out at the Department of Agriculture on Wednesday for failing to allocate more its budget to subsidize rice and corn farmers.

Villar, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, was incensed upon learning that the DA has allocated a P150-million research budget to National Corn Program under the proposed 2020 budget,  and has earmarked P265 million for calamity assistance which she said is a pittance.

“Ang budget niyo, puro sa PS (Personnel Services), overhead, research. Kung hindi research, [as] regulator. Wala ng nabibigay sa tao. Pera ng tao ‘yan. Taxpayers’ money ‘yan. Bakit hindi niyo bigyan ng tulong ang mga tao?” Villar said.

“Kunin niyo na ang 50 percent, ‘yung 50 percent ibigay niyo na sa tao. Hindi ‘yung creative; calamity fund. Ano ba ‘yan?” Villar added.

Villar then accused the National Food Authority (NFA) of having colluded with rice cartels and hoarders for so long until its regulatory functions on rice imports was removed under the recently enacted Rice Tariffication law.

The Rice Tariffication law, signed into law by President Duterte last February, allows unlimited rice imports and provides P10 billion a year to the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund for the benefit of rice farmers in the next six years.

The RCEF earmarks P5 billion for mechanization and P3 billion for seedlings, with the balance allotted to aid farmers.

“Talaga bang kami ay pinapahirapan niyo? Nung pinapasa ko itong Rice Tariffication, ang instruction sa akin, tanggalin na ang NFA. Naawa lang ako sa inyo kaya hindi ko iyon sinama sa provision. In all the years, kasama kayo ng cartel. Pinapahirapan ninyo ang ating mga mahihirap na rice farmers,” Villar said.

“Kaya iyang sa budget niyo, tigilan na ‘yang puro overhead, PS, puro research. It is time to give something to our farmers para mag-improve sila,” Villar added.

The unlimited flow of rice imports under the Rice Tariffication law, however, has brought down the farm gate price of palay to P7 per kilo, prompting the government to distribute a P15,000 in aid to each farmer who tends one hectare of land under the Survival and Recovery (SURE) Aid program.

Such amount, however, would only be enough to cover 22% to 33% of the cost of rice production. —VDS, GMA News