A farmer spreads fertilizeron his rice field in Bambang town, Nueva Vizcaya province. Rice farmers in the country, many of them still relying on manual labor to produce the staple, worry about competition from cheaper imported rice flooding local markets. (File photo by KARLSTON LAPNITEN / Inquirer Northern Luzon)
MANILA, Philippines — Abono party-list Rep. Robert Raymund Estrella questioned on Wednesday the recommendation of the Department of Agriculture to hasten the importation of more rice as a response to the threat of El Niño on agricultural production.
“What’s this? A white flag [of] surrender? You want the importations to go faster […] All you do is import. Don’t you know that if we cannot feed our people, we will have failed them,” Estrella said at a briefing of the House Committee on Agriculture and Food.
“Your recommendation is a flag of surrender. Why don’t you do something?” he went on, speaking partly in Filipino. “Congress is here. We can make legislation that can help you. We can ask for a bigger budget for you. Let’s help each other.”
Estrella was reacting to Agriculture Undersecretary Mercedita Sombilla who presented her department’s recommendation to import 300,000 metric tons of rice each at the end of August, another 300,000 MT in the first and second week of September, and another 500,000 MT in November — “in preparation for El Niño.”
Sombilla also endorsed using the Super Green Lane Facility of the Bureau of Customs for a limited time to hasten these importations and allow the advance processing and clearance of shipments of qualified importers.
She added that the Department of Foreign Affairs should also continue coordinating with rice suppliers — such as Vietnam, Thailand, and India — to distribute their remaining non-basmati white rice to private traders, who will then import these.
In contrast, Agriculture Undersecretary Leo Sebastian agreed with the lawmaker. According to Sebastian, the DA aims to improve local rice production by adopting a new strategy more adaptable to climate change.
“That’s why we are working closely now with NIA [National Irrigation Administration] so that, if we can maximize our rice production during the dry season, we can produce most of our rice that will be needed during the lean months,” Sebastian said.
“I hope, in the coming years [we can do this]. We will not be able to do this overnight. But if you support us, we should attain the sufficiency level we have been dreaming of,” he added.