House panel OKs rice tariffication amendments

MANILA, Philippines — A day after President Marcos certified as urgent the proposed amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), a House committee approved yesterday a bill amending the measure.

The House panel on agriculture and food, chaired by Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga, has approved a substitute bill that would restore the power of the National Food Authority (NFA) to buy and sell rice to consumers.

Speaker Martin Romualdez thanked the committee for the quick approval of the measure. “It is important that we provide our people, especially the poor, access to rice that is much cheaper than market prices,” he said.

Romualdez said such access would be provided by restoring the mandate of the NFA not only to buy palay from farmers but to sell rice directly to consumers.

He earlier estimated that with this, the prices of rice could fall from P10 to P15 per kilo.

The Speaker is eyeing to have RTL amendments approved by the lower chamber on third and final reading before Congress goes on its annual sine die adjournment this month.

According to Enverga, the still unnumbered substitute bill would be forwarded to the House committee on ways and means to discuss its tax provisions and to the appropriation panel for budget provisions.

In an ambush interview, Enverga said the presence of the NFA will be established in the market to stabilize the price of rice. He noted that NFA would be ready to intervene to bring down the prices of rice in the market, especially in emergency situations and this will be the government’s tool to counter unscrupulous traders.

The lawmaker underscored the need for the local price coordinating councils and National Price Coordinating Council to monitor prices and to coordinate NFA’s market intervention.

For his part, Deputy majority leader and ACT-CIS partylist Rep. Erwin Tulfo claimed that House efforts to bring down the price of rice could get derailed in the Senate.

“I am asking our counterparts in the Senate. Maybe they could tweak their version nearer to ours. Even just the NFA, let’s not talk about the others,” Tulfo added.

The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is eyeing to sell rice at P29 per kilo by August as it is seen to