Rice Tarrification Law: Beneficial to Consumers and A Burden to Farmers

Juanga, Mark Matthew V. & Sagun, Erica Grace B.

As indicated by De Guzman (2018), agriculture is dying, this is the current event that is

happening in our country as the agricultural land is being cultivated or developed as industrial

areas, malls or subdivisions. The agricultural land today is now becoming commercial land as the

time pass by. Our number of farmers are suddenly degrading as their children shift careers and not

continuing their work, this just shows that the agricultural industry here in our country does not

improved since ages. The agricultural school who should produce people to help in agricultural

industry are producing office-oriented workers instead. We say that our country is an agricultural

country but the events that are happening are building up a serious question, “Are we still an

agricultural country?” As we can see students from other countries came here to the Philippines to

study agriculture and technology that we use in the said field but what happened? Their agricultural

sector is now much better that ours.

Rice tarrification will produce greater revenue as there will be a higher tariff or tax

collection from the increased imports in the country. The said tariff will be allocated as a budget

for the agriculture sector and as a result, the agrarian region will be more competitive in

contributing for the growth of the country’s economy (Ibon Media, 2019). In addition to this,

Cantos, Go, Montesa and Sta. Anna III (2019), also stated that the rice tarrification law will give

a total fund of 10 billion pesos as a subsidy for technical assistance, seeds, credit and

mechanization for the farmers, making it possible to produce more final goods. Such improvement

and modernization brought by the funding on the agriculture sector will secure a safety net for the

total output of gross domestic product which contributes to the development of the Philippine’s

economy.
 In summary, rice tariffication law is needed because the agriculture sector of the

Philippines is slowly degrading as lands that were once rice fields are being developed and made

for infrastructures. Such modern developments caused for a decrease rice farms and so,

importation is necessary in order to supply the country’s needs. Moreover, rice tarrification law

will paved way for the development of the country’s economy. The said law will give way for the

funding for farmers which will result in higher final goods being produced and a substantial growth

of the economy.

As mentioned by Cantos, Go, Montesa and Sta. Anna III (2019), in their news article

entitled “Understanding Rice Tarrification”, retail price of rice has not declined as compared to

farm gate prices which had a significant drop in price. This only proves that even though

Philippines is set to have 2.4 million metric tons of imported rice for the 2019, prices still varies

from different sectors. This is contrary to the belief of tarrification advocates, they mentioned that

increase rice importation will help in aiding the continuous growth of inflation in the Philippines.

A minimal change in the price selling of rice will not solve the surging inflation of the country.

There is no guarantee that lifting the qualitative restriction on rice importation will make all prices

go down. As long as there is market influence by large-scale or seller segment, prices will still

vary even if there will be a steady supply of rice thus, it only contributes to inflation.

Rice tarrification does not support the needs of the Filipino farmers as this law is giving

the other countries an unlimited volume of rice to deliver here in our country. As this law is still

present, the volume of the inflow of the imported cheaper rice will increase as the price of the local

rice will decrease this will lead to a billion number of decrease as in both volume, production and

price of local rice product (Cororaton, Tiongco, & Yu, 2019) . In addition, Mogato (2019), cited

that as rice imports will continue because of the unlimited quota, there will be more stock of rice
as it will be combined with the local rice that are not being dispose. It just shows that it is too much

for food security as the imported and local rice will be stock in a storage. There will be only an

inflation in rice as we have a higher supply.

In conclusion, price drop of rice in the market is not ensured by the lifting of qualitative

restrictions of rice importation. Thus, it will not help in the rising inflation in the country, but

instead it will only contribute in the growing expenses of the people. Furthermore, increased

number of imported rice will only result in the decreased production and price of local rice. Also,

greater rice imports would only yield to overabundance of rice supply which is excessive for food

security.
References:

Cororaton, C., Yu, K. and Tiongco, M. (2019). Potential Effects of RA 11203 (Philippine Rice

Tariffication). [online] BusinessWorld. Available at:

https://www.bworldonline.com/potential-effects-of-ra-11203-philippine-rice-tariffication/

[Accessed 22 Nov. 2019].

De Guzman, S. (2019). Agriculture is dying in the Philippines | Philstar.com. [online]

philstar.com. Available at:

https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2018/06/18/1825542/agriculture-dying-philippines

[Accessed 22 Nov. 2019].

Go, L., Cantos, J., Montesa, A. and Sta. Ana III, F. (2019). Understanding rice tariffication |

Action for Economic Reforms (AER). [online] Aer.ph. Available at:

http://aer.ph/understanding-rice-tariffication/ [Accessed 22 Nov. 2019].

IBON Foundation. (2019). Further imperiling Philippine rice. [online] Available at:

https://www.ibon.org/further-imperiling-philippine-rice/ [Accessed 22 Nov. 2019].

Mogato, A. (2019). Butterfly effect: How rice tariffication bill affects everyone. [online] Rappler.

Available at: https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/223268-how-rice-tariffication-bill-

beyond-

industry?fbclid=IwAR3aNuikiwWzY4O14CnMKIY4LQzDWFHucoGE92z30YL9QvP7

prIQR74ypGU [Accessed 22 Nov. 2019].