TIMELINE

1970 - Mr. Silvestre started farming at 10 while he is studying. He helps his father every day
after school.

1980 - He finished school with the degree, Bachelor of Science in Education major in Filipino.
This was also the period when he first established his own rice field at his very young, 21 years
of age.

1990 - The year when he started to create his own family. His business had grown so he grab the
opportunity to build his second rice field. This was the time when the rice grain costs 20-21
pesos each.

2000 - The decade where the farmers especially in their place - Pakil Laguna had a loss of sales
due to a lot of somewhat super typhoon came. He stated that if there’s a typhoon and your rice
grain is not yet ready to harvest, it's automatically a loss for them. It is where he and his family
had a hard time dealing with their life financially since only his rice fields are their source of
income.

2010 - It is where Mr. Silvestre invested to have his own house and motorcycle (made it as a
tricycle that serves as one of their source of income) also in this decade, he also kept to have his
own 3rd and 4th rice field. These years brought a lot of happiness and growth to his family. His
eldest daughter, second son and third daughter finished their degree by this time. That's why they
had a chance to help their father to other expenses.

2019 - This year is where the Rice Tariffication Law signed by the President Rodrigo Roa
Duterte. In which the past year's rice grain costs 20-21 pesos, is now decrease for as low as 7
pesos per rice grain. He stated that he felt sad by this because instead that the money they buy to
other countries that is planted here are allocated to local farmers as their profit, were all went
nothing. They don't have enough power to fight for their rights. He said that they are the ones
who are suffering because of this law. But as of this year, his youngest daughter also graduated.
He made his children finished school because of farming
QUESTIONNAIRE:

1. What do you feel or think when you hear about Rice Tariffication Law?

The grain market is declining. As an owner of a rice field, I have a lot of increasing expenses
like I pay for kubota, suyod and even the one who cut rice grains. It really affects farmers like me
because instead of having a big amount of sales, it decreases due to a lot of expenses.

2. Does this law affect your life? In what way?

Yes. It’s hard for me to pay expenses that’s why I loan in the bank.

3. How do you overcome this problem on your business? How do you adjust?

As of now, we still don’t have plans since our group didn’t meet yet. But what is happening
right now is that the renters want to increase the payment but I will tell them that don’t increase
the price because it will be more difficult for us. We should control the increase of paying to the
labor.

4. Do you consider Rice Tariffication Law as a major problem?

Yes. Some of the Vietnamese are studying here, we buy rice to them because they plant and
they have a lot of rice fields here that’s why they have more sales than us because they do their
research and studying which effective system or concept is appropriate for them to harvest a lot
of rice grain. Furthermore, our government will buy to them instead it’s for us local farmers. We
have different local varieties too the problem is when it comes in buying rice grain, it has a low
price that’s why we farmers, are the ones who get tormented in expenses.

5. Does your group/organization has something to raise a concern to the government? If ever you
already meet with your group, what do you think you and your group would like to say to the
government officials?
 They should maintain the above 20 pesos of rice grain and never decrease it because we are
not just the ones who get affected to it but also our laborers. They would tell us that we should
increase their salary but how can we agree to it if we have a lower and decreasing sales.