Baguilat asks: Have farmers benefited from cash aid promised in Rice Tariffication law?

Opposition Senate bet Teddy Baguilat Jr. has called on the Duterte administration to account for the cash assistance for farmers provided in the 2019 Rice Tariffication Act.

The law removed most government controls on rice imports and imposes a 35-percent tariff on imports from the country's neighbors in Southeast Asia.

The former Ifugao congressman was referring to the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, which is sourced from tariff revenues and is worth at least P10 billion—to be allocated annually, for six years, to support local rice farmers.

The fund is supposed to be used for programs aimed at improving the competitiveness of local farmers and augmenting their income amidst the liberalization of the rice trade policy.

"The government should also [look] into the distribution of the promised fund to the farmers. Paano [na ang] katas ng rice tariffication? Ito po ba ay naibabalik sa magsasaka ng mahusay?" Baguilat said in a statement.

(Whatever happened to the supposed fruits of the rice tariffication? Has this reached the farmers and been used well?)

"Ang dibidendo bang ipinangako ay ibinigay sa wastong halaga at tamang panahon?" he added.

(Are the dividends promised to farmers given to them at the right amount and on time?)

Baguilat said that the status of tariff collection prices and the rice prices after the law's passage should also be evaluated.

“Kailangan silipin yung tamang pagbubuwis. Totoo bang nakakatulong ito sa mga magsasaka at sa mga pamilyang Pilipino?" he said.

(How about the tariff collection? Did it really help the farmers?)

"Baka artificial lang din ang bagsak presyo na kalaunan ay tataas din kapag monopolyado na ang merkado," Baguilat added.

(The reduced rice prices could be artificial and this could eventually increase once there is monopoly of the market.)

Baguilat joined opposition standard bearer and Vice President Leni Robredo during a campaign stop in Nueva Ecija, the country's rice granary, on Tuesday.

During the same campaign stop, Robredo lamented that the Rice Tariffication Law was a burden rather than benefit to farmers.

"Para po sa atin, 'yung ideya ng pagbubukas ng market, maayos naman 'yun, pero kailangan ihanda muna natin 'yung mga farmers natin para makapag-compete," Robredo said during her speech during the People's Rally in Cabanatuan City that drew 50,000 people based on estimates of local police.

(It is good to open the market, but we should prepare our farmers first so they can compete [with the imported produce].)

"We have been calling government to review, suspend, tapos i-review, kasi... halos wala nang kinikita [ang farmers] dahil sa presyo ng mga produkto," she said.

(We have calling on the government to suspend this law and review it because the farmers are hardly earning anything due to the prevailing market prices of rice).

During the vice presidential debate organized by the Commission on Elections last Sunday, vice presidential bet Walden Bello called out Robredo's running mate, Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, for abstaining on the vote on the passage of the Rice Tariffication law when Pangilinan's main platform is food security. 

Pangilinan justified his decision to abstain from voting on the measure by saying he voted that way because he had reservations on the benefit of it. — BM, GMA News