Despite his vow to reduce the price of rice to P20 a kilo, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr succeeded in two things— skyrocketing rice imports to 4.7 million metric tons (MMT) and raising prices to more than P60 a kilo— proving that despite acting as agriculture secretary, Marcos Jr. failed miserably to address the major problems of the rice industry.
Had he studied the political economy of rice, Marcos Jr. could have understood that landless tenants cannot be productive while the wishy-washy implementation of agrarian reform isn’t an incentive for farmers to raise palay output. The enactment of the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) in 2018 only worsened the problem since it became more profitable to import rice rather than produce it domestically. The RTL and other issues that bludgeon the peasantry are the main issues tackled in the Jan. 16 5th National People’s Rice Summit at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) compound in Quezon City.
Bantay Bigas, Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, Kadamay, Gabriela Women’s Party and other organizations participated in the summit exposed that the very agricultural policies of the Marcos government are the root causes of the chronic rice crisis in the country, denounce the continuing implementation of the RA 11203 or the RTL, which has been exacerbated by Executive Order No. 62, and hold Marcos accountable. The summit also tackled urgent, fundamental or long-term solutions beneficial to Filipino farmers, poor consumers, stakeholders and the country’s population.
“We should break out from the cycle of being victimized by the Marcos gov’t’s continued serial deception, by implementing gimmicks and propaganda, posing to act, from the Kadiwa, Rice-for-all and now the Sulit and Nutri broken rice, the fruitless raids on warehouses, price ceiling, while totally hiding the historical fact that Marcos scammed the people with his P20 per kilo rice promise, and that the implementation of RTL and worsened by the tariff reduction by the E0 62, was the major root cause of the crisis, leading to historic high importation of 4.68 MMT of rice and depressed farmgate prices leading to rice farmers’ bankruptcies and displacement from livelihood,” Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) chairperson Danilo Ramos argued.
“Moreover, it should not be forgotten that the RTL was enacted by the Duterte-Villar-Arroyo syndicate in 2018, promising lower prices of rice to P25 per kilo, but causing the exact opposite, as it enabled unregulated profiteering by big landlords, importers and traders. Worse, rice farmers faced bankruptcy, the value of palay production declined and undermined the country’s rice self-sufficiency and food security,” he added. KMP slammed the Marcos administration for failing to see that unbridled rice importations only favor compradors who can creatively hoard stocks to drive up prices and manipulate distribution. The Filipino consumer is being tortured by a government that cannot influence rice supply since it has killed the function of the National Food Authority (NFA) to provide rice to the markets when stocks in the markets are low. RTL has privatized the job of guaranteeing food security and transferred it to the very traders who hoard rice and earn enormous profits.
The summit issued the People’s Manifesto, holding Marcos Jr. accountable for its policies of worsening, and demanding the urgent and fundamental solutions to the rice crisis, to call for broader support from the people, to achieve food security based on self-sufficiency and self-reliance, and to highlight it as a national and democratic agenda for the upcoming May 2025 elections. KMP and its allies said the Department of Agriculture (DA) should stop pontificating about the maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) of P58 per kilo since it would not solve the problem of high prices and low output. Without supporting rice farmers, the Marcos Jr. administration is worsening the problem and pushing the rice deficit than 23%.
“The MRSP is just a show. There is no mechanism for the DA to force traders and rice retailers to follow the MRSP while farmers continue to suffer from low palay prices. Farmers and consumers will continue to suffer while the rice cartel and big importers profit,” Ramos stressed. The P58 MRSP is too high for ordinary consumers. In September 2023, the DA imposed a price ceiling of P42 per kilo for local rice and P45 per kilo for well-milled rice. The result? Rice prices shot up to P50 and even higher. KMP said this will continue to happen unless domestic rice production increases and government supports farmers consistently. Under the current regime, this remains to be a pipe dream.
