By DIEGO MORRA
There is always a limit to forbearance, and rice farmers in Guimba, Nueva Ecija have had it after years of losing money as farmgate prices for palay have sunk to between P10 and P12 per kilo, guaranteeing grain producers that they would continue to be at the mercy of loan sharks, never to rise from their status as “aliping bayad-utang.”
Now, no less than 199 of these farmers, some of whom may be related to renowned US-based Filipino painter Edwin Wilwayco, have written President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to complain why they are being subjected to such indignity as selling their grain for a pittance, while the National Food Authority (NFA) continues to buy minuscule volumes of paddy rice. Now, the complaint is in black and white and there is no reason for Malacanang not to respond to the clear for Marcos Jr. to abide by the provisions of the 1987 Constitution mandating the state to protect the agricultural sector and guarantee food security by raising palay output. After acting as agriculture secretary himself, Marcos Jr. failed to scrap the single biggest anomaly in agricultural policy—the enactment of the Rice Liberalization Law (RLL) by the despised Duterte regime.
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) has supported the farmers, all from Barangay Bantug, Guimba, who urged Marcos Jr. to set the P20 per kilo floor price for fresh palay. The Guimba farmers told the President that because of RLL, the palay market has become a buyers’ market inasmuch the law, enacted in 2019 by the Duterte supermajority in Congress which was at war with common sense. KMP argued that with unmitigated rice importation, both the Duterte regime, and now the Marcos dispensation, presided over the multibillion-peso losses of farmers, millers and ancillary industries. With India now reporting bumper rice harvests, favored rice importers would go the whole hog in flooding the market with the staple.
KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos explained that aside from Malaysia, which has set its annual rice import figure at 30% of demand, it is only the Philippines, an agricultural country since the republic was born, that has anchored its rice security policy on massive rice importation. True enough, the country has imported 3.9 million metric tons (MMT) of rice to retain the notorious tag as the world’s biggest rice importer, and the country started falling into that precipice during the equally despised regime of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Willy-nilly, Arroyo spurred food riots in South Asia and Africa by announcing the importation of 2.4-MMT of rice, pushing up prices in the wake of her unprecedented announcement. Ramos disclosed that since 2019, unscrupulous traders have raked in millions of pesos in obscene profits by keeping palay farmgate prices low, and the continuing crime is now on its 6th year, abetted by the RLL that Congress apparently is not inclined to repeal.
“Nalulugi ang mga magsasaka sa bawat anihan. Binibili lang ng traders sa P10 hanggang P12 kada kilo ng palay. May mas mababa pa sa P8 hanggang P10 kada kilo. Saan ka pa pupulutin niyan?” lamented Ramos. The farmers, who lack access to drying and transport facilities, cannot sell to the NFA, which has been complaining that they cannot do anything to influence market prices since the agency has been reduced to simply amassing buffer stocks equivalent to 30-days supply or no more than 1.5 MMT of milled rice. An amendment to the law would even slash the bufgfer stock to only 15 days. “Dapat pakinggan ng gobyerno ang panawagan ng mga magsasaka. Doble pahirap ang RLL at ang pagbagsak ng presyo ng palay. Nararapat lamang ang P20 na floor price para sa sariwang palay upang matiyak ang kabuhayan ng mga magbubukid. Matagal nang ipinapanawagan ng KMP na dapat bilhin sa P20 pataas ng kada kilo ng palay,” Ramos argued.
KMP has consistently denounced RLL, also known as Republic Act No. 11203, enacted in 2019, for being unconstitutional and subversive of the interests of farmers and consumers despite the insistence of former Sen Cynthia Villar that it would generate huge tariffs to support agriculture. Like the promised safety nets when the country acceded to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the money for farm modernization and mechanization has become scarce and never landed into the pockets of farmers. Like Godot, it never came. Worse, RLL fostered the pauperization of peasants by removing quantitative restrictions on imports in favor of tariffs, which were supposed to fund competitiveness programs. Instead, the market was flooded with cheap imported rice, driving down the price of locally produced palay and squeezing small farmers out of the supply chain.
In its policy reviews and its critique of the Marcos administration’s midterm performance, KMP pointed out that RA 11203 stripped farmers of state protection and placed the entire industry at the hands of private importers and traders. The Rice competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) , the supposed compensation mechanism, has not reached poor farmers. Mechanization and training programs were implemented with limited scope and accountability, favoring large, well-connected producers. Meanwhile, the NFA’s diminished role has left farmers with no reliable buyer during the harvest season. KMP said the catastrophic damage wrought by RLL is irreparable. Palay farmgate prices collapsed, plunging to a range of P7 and P10 per kilo, resulting in massive losses to farmers. Rice imports surged from 2.2 MMT in 2018 to nearly 3.9 MMT last year, displacing local production and pushing farmers into misery.
The distribution of RCEF benefits was uneven, with big farmers receiving the lion’s share, while majority of small farmers received little or no support at all. “Pahirap sa magsasaka ang pagpapatuloy ng RA 11203 at maging ang amyenda nitong RA 12078. Lalo lang nitong ibinaon sa utang at kawalang-kita ang mga magsasaka ng palay,” Ramos emphasized. “Ang mga traders at importers lang ang nakinabang. Matagal nang dapat ibinasura ang batas na ito.” KMP said the petition of Guimba farmers illustrates the national crisis in palay prices that affect millions of Filipino rice farmers. The immediate imposition of a P20/kilo floor price must be followed by the repeal of RA 11203, the restoration of NFA’s mandate to procure directly from farmers, and significant post-harvest support including drying, storage, and transport infrastructure. “Ang laban para sa pagpapataas ng presyo ng palay ay laban ng lahat ng magsasakang Pilipino. Dapat itong suportahan ng publiko at aksyunan ng gobyerno,” it concluded.
