Pres. Duterte suspends rice importation this harvest season, tells DA to buy all rice produced by local farmers

President Rodrigo Duterte speaks to reporters in a late night press briefing on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019 in Malacanang. (Photo grabbed from RTVM video)

 

(Eagle News) – President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday night directed Agriculture Secretary William Dar to suspend all rice importations, and to instead buy all the palay or rice harvested by the country’s farmers.

Duterte said that the Department of Agriculture should buy all the palay of the country’s farmers at farmgate prices even if this would mean using up funds that would exceed the allocation for this.

This is because he wants to support the farmers this harvesting season in the midst of the rice tariffication law implementation.

“This is harvest time,” he said stressing that the farmers should be supported at this time.

He said that DA should fill all government warehouses to the ceiling with the rice harvest bought from the country’s farmers.

“Filipinos are visual. If they see rice cavans up to the ceiling (in the government warehouses), they will think everything is well,” he said in mixed Filipino and English in a press briefing late Tuesday night.

But the President said that there is still a need to import rice because all the rice that could be produced by local farmers is still not enough to fill the needs of 110 million rice-eating Filipinos.

That’s why we need to have a buffer stock, he said.

But during harvest time, it is important to buy all the rice that could be produced by farmers, he said.

Bilihin lahat ng produce ng mga farmers. Farmgate prices, babawi sila (the farmers can recoup),” Duterte said.

Gagastos tayo, ok lang bilihin natin, para yung mga farmers may resulta sa pawis nila. Bilihin nating lahat yan, tapos dagdagan natin kasi kulang talaga (We will spend money, that’s ok, we will buy.  So that our farmers will see the result of their hard work.  We will buy it [local rice harvest] all, then we will supplement [with imported rice] because it (local rice production] is really not enough),” he said.

The President pointed out that a buffer stock should be in place since the reality is extreme weather phenomena such as typhoons and other calamities could affect farmlands anytme.

Hindi mo alam ang sitwasyon ng mundo mo (You don’t know the global situation), climate change for instance. Kung tanim mo wasakin ng bagyo (if your crops are destroyed by typhoons),”

“You cannot predict. Just like an earthquake, no one can predict when an earthquake will strike.

He said that the problem is really that the quantity of local rice production is not enough to meet the rice needs of the country.

Ang problema kulang ang na-po-produce. Sigurado gutom abutin. Mag-riot ang mga tao,” he said.

Mamili ka magutom ang mga tao, o galit ang mga farmers,” he said, “pero sabi ko, havest time, seasonal naman yan, (we suspend rice importations)”

-Duterte tells Congress, provide the needed funds-

He also directed Congress to provide the funds for the DA to buy all the rice harvested by local farmers.

“Congress you appropriate the money and we will buy all the rice at farmgate prices of all farmers,” he said.

Duterte also stressed that he cannot stop the implementation of the rice tariffication law since this was set up to address corruption in the rice importation business.

He said that previously, the process of getting permits to import rice pass through so many levels of bureaucracy and had been a source of corruption and red tape.

“I cannot stop rice tariffication. It’s against corruption,” the President stressed.