LINGAYEN– The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) decried the government’s loan assistance program for farmers in the face of unprecedented losses caused by rice traders’ manipulation prompted by the Rice Tariffcation Law. 

He said government subsidy not another loan program will help farmers.

Danilo Ramos, KMP chairman, said loan programs launched by the government will not help, unless Republic Act 11203, otherwise known as the Rice Tariffication Law, is repealed.

The loan program is a band-aid solution to the farmers’ dilemma that would not help because the PHP 15,000 loan would further add to their debts.

“Kaya sa halip na makaraos kami, banat-buto lalo para mabayaran”, said Ramos.

The PHP 15,000 loan is payable in eight years with no interest, under the Survival and Recovery (SuRe) Program of the Department of Agriculture.

Ramos said farmers spend P40,000 per hectare of rice field.

“Luging-lugi kami. Subsidiya ang kailangan namin, hindi pautang. Mas mahal pa nga yung darak.”, Ramos said.

Earlier, Department of Agriculture Secretary William Dar announced the launching of a loans programs to help the farmers adding that palay rice harvested by farmers will be directly purchased by the National Food Authority.

Under the Rice Tariffication Law, the government eliminates the quota system on rice importation to afford cheaper rice for households.  A key features is the replacement of the rice importation quota system with tariffs – 35% if rice was imported from within ASEAN; 40% if it is within the minimum access volume (MAV) of 350,000 metric tons for imports coming from countries outside ASEAN; and 180% if above the MAV from a non-ASEAN country.

From this law, government expects to generate an additional revenue of P10 billion.

The incentive tariffs, however, shifted to importation and away from purchasing from farmers, for better profits. Farmers ended up with traders offering farmgate prices as low as PHP 7.  (Ahikam Pasion)

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