Bringing rice prices down to P20 per kilo, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said during the elections last May, “may not be part of the agency’s plan” but said that “price reduction is the (administration’s) aspiration,” the Department of Agriculture said Tuesday.
DA Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian admitted this to legislators during the agency’s budget hearing upon questioning from Deputy Minority Leader and Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman.
Sebastian attended the hearing at the House of Representatives to defend the DA’s proposed P181-billion budget for 2024.
Hataman stressed that “the self-sufficiency plan should include the price.”
“It is not enough for the rice to be available, it should be affordable, especially since the President is the DA chief and this is his campaign promise,” Hataman said in Filipino.
But Sebastian could not give a direct answer to Hataman, saying: “Iyong P20 per kilo [of rice], medyo mahirap (The P20 per kilo price is rather hard to achieve).”
Hataman then pressed DA officials if bringing down rice prices to P20 per kilo was part of the department’s plan.
Sebastian responded “[Price] reduction, that is included, but not the P20, Mr. Chair.”
He added the P20 per kilo rice promise was “our goal post when it comes to reducing the cost.”
“As the President has also said, that is our aspiration Mr. Chair,” Sebastian noted, adding that “we want to ensure good income for our farmers, that is our main objective.”
Sebastian said rice prices might stabilize at P45 to 46 per kilo due to high production costs and high prices of rice imports and added that rice prices are higher in Metro Manila while low in areas where the harvest season has started.
“Mr. Chair, to be honest, we never discussed those things you are asking, Mr. Chair, with the President,” he told Hataman.
Earlier in the hearing, Agriculture Undersecretary Mercedita Sombilla said the rice buffer stock for the months of August and September was thin, so the need to import rice by September 15.
“We are in the lean months, and we are still in the harvest,” Sombilla said.
“The peak harvest time is mid-October to November, so we are hoping to get imports this month, up to September 15, to stabilize local prices,” Sombilla said.
Meanwhile, AGRI Party-list Rep. Wilbert T. Lee has proposed the establishment of a subsidy program designed to encourage Filipino farmers to produce enough rice stocks to make the country rice self-sufficient.
Dubbed the Rice Incentivization, Self-Sufficiency, and Enterprise (RISE) Program, Lee said its objective is to make rice production profitable for farmers while ensuring that rice prices remain stable and affordable for the ordinary Filipino consumer via a subsidy that will be provided for the country’s estimated 2.6 million rice farmers.
Lee made the proposal with international rice supplies and prices have been in a constant state of instability and unpredictability, and local rice production is unable to guarantee affordable rice for consumers.
“Via the RISE Program, we believe there is a chance for the Philippine rice industry to rise again,” Lee said.
Aside from buying rice from farmers at competitive prices, the RISE Program will mandate the government to sell the rice it acquires to consumers at affordable rates, he added.
