Senator Francis Pangilinan has welcomed the Senate’s approval of the Cash Assistance for Filipino Farmers bill.
In his explanation of vote Tuesday morning, Pangilinan highlighted the need to legislate this measure which seeks to amend the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL), especially during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Senate Bill (SB) 1927 seeks to authorize the Department of Agriculture to release cash assistance to rice farmers owning less than one hectare of land until 2024.
The financial aid will come from any excess of the 10 billion pesos in tariff revenues from the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) as contained in the RTL.
“The situation has been so dire and urgent that not long after, on 5 September 2019, we filed Senate Joint Resolution 2, to amend the RTL to allow the use of the tariff for immediate cash assistance to farmers,” he said.
Pangilinan recalled his August 2019 privilege speech where he first recommended this amendment to the RTL.
This, he said, is “consistent with the recommendation of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies in a 2015 study that during transition, every farmer gets a yearly cash assistance to cushion the impact of the lifting of the quantitative restrictions on rice imports.”
His previous privilege speech also mentioned the said critical situation of our rice farmers which includes the loss of an estimated P60 billion pesos as palay prices dropped following the importation of cheap rice.
“Our farmers are in urgent need of support. They continue to struggle and yet they continue to feed us as a nation. If not for them, our food security will be in peril,” he said.
Pangilinan then thanked his colleagues for the swift passage and overwhelming support to the bill which he said will directly benefit the farmers who have been coping with the drop in palay prices and the devastation brought by the recent typhoons in the country.
