Duterte removes quota on rice importation

In this photo taken in March, workers release sacks of rice from a National Food Authority (NFA) warehouse in Cebu City. Recently, in Tacloban City, the NFA condemned a shipment of rice seized by the Bureau of Customs in 2014. File photo by JUNJIE MENDOZA / CEBU DAILY NEWS

DAVAO CITY – President Rodrigo Duterte said he had told traders he had foregone the quota system in rice importation and they can now import the commodity as long as they pay the correct taxes.

“I have done away with the quota-quota. You can import rice, all of you. No more paperwork. And if there is somebody from (National Food Authority), (Bureau of Internal Revenue), Customs who would ask, asking money from you, slap him. Try to slap him,” he said in a speech before members of the Grand Masonry here on Thursday.

The event was off-limits to media but Malacañang released a transcript of the President’s speech on Friday.

President Duterte said “(t)here was really no (rice) shortage” but he wanted the rice inventory to go up.

The President said he made that clear to government officials.

“I said, ‘guys, I want to see rice up there. Touching the ceiling of this warehouse. Now,’” the President said.

President Duterte said he was mad when the government’s inventory went so low NFA warehouses were either “half-full or half-empty.”

“So the best way, I said, to address this problem is I will fill my inventory,” Duterte added.

He said those importing rice to beef up supply should “(j)ust pay the taxes, the correct taxes.”

“That’s the end,” he said as he asked businessmen to shy away from shady deals with government officials.

“So somebody mess up with you? (Tell them) ‘Duterte said I should slap you. Yeah, that would be extortion,’” he said, addressing rice importers. /jpv