Duterte admits PH won’t be rice-sufficient by 2020

President Rodrigo Duterte admitted on Wednesday that the Philippines would not become rice-sufficient by 2020, contradicting Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol’s statement that the country would achieve rice sufficiency by then.

“And if you’d ask me, in the next how many years, we will just have to import rice. I do not believe that we can be rice-sufficient,” he said during the signing of memorandum of agreement between the Commission on Higher Education and state colleges and universities in Malacañang.

Duterte said Pinol’s statement was just a “story.”

“‘Yung sinabi ni Piñol na at the years end, storya man lang ‘yon,” he said.

The President had earlier approved the importation of 250,000 metric tons of rice from Vietnam and Thailand.

READ: PH to import 250,000 tons of rice from Vietnam, Thailand

Last year, he disapproved the extension of rice importation permits. Recently, however, he allowed the National Food Authority (NFA) Council to import more rice as the government supply dwindles.

On Wednesday, he said he wanted rice warehouses to be filled up to the ceiling. /ee