MANILA, Philippines — Extraordinary increase in prices and glutted National Food Authority (NFA) warehouses may soon push the government to declare a food security emergency.
Under the amended Rice Tariffication Law, the Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary has the power to declare the said emergency due to supply shortage or extraordinary increase in prices.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. confirmed on Thursday, January 16, that the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC) has approved a resolution urging the agency to declare a food emergency “even with the tariff cuts and the world prices of rice going down.”
An effect of the declaration, Laurel said in a Malacañang briefing, is that the National Food Authority will be able to sell rice buffer stocks without waiting for these to age, as stated in the law.
“This would allow the NFA to free warehouses also to be able to buy more palay in the next harvest season,” said Laurel. According to the agriculture secretary, NFA warehouses are swamped, storing around 300,000 metric tons of rice.
With the upcoming harvest season and with the NFA looking to buy new stocks from local farmers, overwhelmed warehouses is a significant factor that may impel the DA to declare an emergency.
“We have to technically start really selling or distributing the rice we have dahil importante makabili kami sa farmers sa tamang presyo.” Laurel said they hope to sell the rice buffer stocks by February.
(We have to technically start really selling or distributing the rice we have because it’s important that we buy from farmers at the right price.)
The NFA buys rice from local producers and stores them for distribution during calamities or emergencies.
Despite the confirmation to reporters, Laurel said that the DA is still awaiting the formal transmittal of the recommendation from the NPCC.
Repealing EO 62
As part of the effort to lower rice prices, the government cut down rice tariffs from 35% to 15% in 2024 under Executive Order 62.
Such declaration of food emergency, however, is already an “admission of the dismal failure of EO62,” said Jayson Cainglet, executive director of farmers’ group Sinag, in a statement on Thursday.
The group urged the NPCC to recommend to the National Economic and Development Authority the repeal of EO 62.
A NEDA official in December 2024 admitted during a House hearing that the lower tariff did not help drive down prices as was anticipated. (READ: Rice tariff cut only benefitted importers not consumers – DA officials)
Laurel said during the Malacañang briefing that the agency was thinking of differentiating the amount of tariff imposed depending on the type of rice being imported.
In 2024, the Philippines imported a record high of 4.78 million metric tons of rice. – Rappler.com