Agriculture Secretary William Dar said Friday that if the state-subsidized NFA rice becomes available again in the market, beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) will be given “first priority.”
“First priority lang yung 4ps,” Dar told Dobol B TV in an interview. “Kung meron nang enough supply, maidadagdag natin yung ibang pobre natin.”
(The 4P beneficiaries are given priority; if there is enough supply, the other indigents can be added.)
Dar stated that the government’s subsidy would determine this to the National Food Authority (NFA).
“Kung tataasan pa natin yung subsidiya ng NFA, then i-include na yung mga pobre,” he said. “As we have more budget for NFA, mas marami naman yung ilalabas nila na rice every now and then para sa NFA outlets.”
(If the subsidy is increased, more impoverished households will be able to obtain NFA rice, and because we have more funding for NFA, more rice will be supplied to NFA outlets regularly.)
Since August 2019, NFA rice has been unavailable on the market.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) previously stated that to make rice more accessible, it plans to reintroduce NFA rice into the market, but only for 4Ps beneficiaries.
NFA rice allocated for 4Ps beneficiaries
Dar stated that a modification to the Rice Tariffication Law would not be required to bring back NFA rice.
The rule went into effect in March 2019, allowing limitless rice imports as long as private sector traders obtain a phytosanitary permit and pay a 35 percent duty for shipments from Southeast Asian countries.
Meanwhile, the proposed ₱ 20 per kilo of rice in the country is impossible, according to a statement by a group of farmers.
“In the framework and the existing Rice Tariffication law or Rice Liberalization Law, it is impossible. The ₱ 20 per kilo in the framework of neoliberal policies, such as existing liberalization policies and deregulation. It is impossible to achieve,” said Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) chairman emeritus Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano said in Filipino.
It will be recalled that presumptive president Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. promised to push the price of rice in the country to ₱ 20 in the face of the pandemic.
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