Quimbo defends rice tariff law: It did its job until import prices soared

Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FB PAGE

MANILA, Philippines — Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo has defended Republic Act No. 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) from critics, saying that the law was able to keep rice prices low save for recent times — when import prices spiked.

Quimbo at the hearing of the House of Representatives’ committee on agriculture and food on Monday presented a graph which showed that rice inflation — or the rate of rice price increases — actually went down as much as negative 8.3 percent after RTL was signed into law in 2019.

However, the recent upward spike in the price of imported rice meant that the government was now bringing in more expensive rice than what was procured after RTL was enacted.

READ: Marcos to certify rice tariff law amendments as urgent

“Okay, sir, the red dot is the point of the passage of the law, you can see that as soon as it was passed, the price of rice plummeted — not even a month passed but rice inflation was in the negative. Almost immediately, and note that rice inflation was very much sustained at the very low levels, less than three percent, we can see that for many months it was negative,” Quimbo told fellow lawmakers and guests.

“This is proof that RTL was effective, and it was only in 2023 that rice prices skyrocketed. We did not change anything in the law, that’s why I hope we look at the data, and refrain from suddenly attacking the Rice Tariffication Law and refrain from claiming that it was not effective,” she added.

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One of the authors

Quimbo was one of the authors who filed measures seeking to amend the RTL. According to her, she filed House Bill (HB) No. 9030 to give the National Food Authority (NFA) an ability to mount an emergency response and reduce tariff costs when imported rice is expensive.

With this way, Quimbo said importation can still be used as a tool to reduce rice prices.

“What happened recently?  Rice inflation rose to 24.4 percent — and in fact the reason why I filed my bill was because there was an abnormality in the world market, many months ago, world prices increase due to the increase in fuel costs because of the war in Russia, fertilizer cost issues, higher world prices, and at the export ban (in India),” she explained.

READ: Farmers’ group decries rice tariffication law, claims P44B lost

“That’s why it (the effects) was reversed. Import prices are higher that’s why I said the law’s purpose is being reversed, let us give NFA emergency powers, and in fact in my bill there is a call to suspend tariffs so that we can still use importation as a tool to reduce prices but without the tariff,” she added.

The committee is currently discussing proposed amendments to the RTL. According to Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and other members of the House, they seek to amend the RTL so that NFA can sell cheaper rice directly to the public again.

However, not all within Congress are in favor of amending the RTL. Makabayan bloc lawmakers, particularly Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas, have maintained that the RTL must be repealed, because it negatively impacted farmers.

In a statement earlier, Brosas acknowledged the administration for giving Congress the chance to discuss the effects of RTL — which they believed disadvantaged local farmers because consumers prefer the cheaper but imported rice grains, compared to the local variety which costs a bit higher.

Progressive groups believe that even if the tariff for imported rice were used to help farmers, the local industry was severely affected as rice farming was no longer seen as profitable.

Senator Cynthia Villar, author of the RTL, meanwhile warned that amending the law to allow NFA to sell rice again might expose the agency to corruption. But Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing last May 2 assured the Senator that amendments to the RTL would include safeguards — adding that there will be ways to task NFA with selling cheaper rice while monitoring its activities.