VIEWS on the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) remain mixed in the two years since it was signed into law, speakers at a webinar said on Tuesday.

Economist and food security expert V. Bruce Tolentino, who is also a member of the Monetary Board, noted that Republic Act 11203 had led to increased palay output, which reached a record 4.626 million metric tons (MT) in the first quarter of 2021.

The overall rice harvest area also expanded to 1.15 million hectares from 1.1 million hectares while yield improved to 4.03 MT per hectare from 3.88 MT per hectare, he told the webinar organized by the University of the PhilippinesLos Baños College of Economics and Management.

“More importantly, from our point of view in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Philippine rice

prices have become much more stable than either Vietnamese and Thai export prices. We have the Rice Tariffication Law to thank for that,” Tolentino said.

“Moreover, the contribution of rice to inflation has been negative or zero . . . Rice is now a commodity that contributes very little or nothing in inflation. We no longer have to worry about rice inflation,” he added.

Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) Chairman Raul Montemayor, however, claimed the law had led to detrimental effects on farmers and also consumers.

Montemayor stressed that RA 11203 had led to a flood of cheap imported rice with total imports reaching 3.174 million MT in 2019 and 2.117 million MT in 2020. He added that these were 22 percent and 15 percent higher than the country’s total rice requirements for those years.

The import flood, Montemayor continued, led to a plunge in palay prices, slashing farmer incomes and forcing some traders and millers to cease operations.

“May mga trader-millers na huminto sa pamimili at pag-giling dahil hindi nila mabenta ang kanilang produkto sa dati nilang suki. ‘Yong iba naman ay nagbaba ng presyo dahil alam nila na matatagalan pa bago humupa ang baha ng imported at maibalik ang kanilang puhunan (Some tradermillers stopped buying and milling because they could no longer sell their products. Others cut prices because they knew that the rice import flood would continue and they would be unable to recoup their capital),” he pointed out.

Montemayor also said that National

Food Authority (NFA) and local government efforts to buy directly from farmers were not enough and that the Agriculture department was unwilling to impose safeguard duties to aid local farmers.

Palay price drops over the last two years under the rice tariffication law, he claimed, had led to P56 billion in losses for farmers based on FFF calculations.

“Mas madali sigurong tanggapin ng mga magsasaka ang pagkalugi kung nakinabang naman ang mga mamimili, lalo na ang mahihirap . . . maliban sa nawala ang murang NFA rice sa merkado dahil sa RTL, karamihan sa inangkat na bigas ay mga mamahaling klase na hindi naman nila kayang bilhin (Losses would be easier to accept for farmers if consumers, particularly the poor, benefit . . . but aside from the loss of cheaper NFA rice because of the RTL, much of the rice imported is of the expensive kind that the poor cannot afford),” Montemayor said.