CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Some 600,000 farmers from 33 provinces affected by the drop in palay prices are to receive P5,000 each from the government starting Dec. 23, but farmers said the amount is insignificant compared to the average P25,000 they lost per hectare because of the Rice Liberalization Law.
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) hit the P5,000-per-farmer aid under the Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RFAA) as “plain dole out.”
“The Department of Agriculture’s (DA) unconditional cash transfer scheme is not enough to reverse effects of rice tariffication. P5,000 is worth much less than the actual losses incurred by farmers due to the plunge in palay prices,” the KMP said in a statement.
It warned that “there would be more losses in the future as long as RA 11203 (Rice Liberalization Law) is in effect,” the KMP said.
It noted that “on average, a rice farmer lost a minimum of P25,000 per hectare as a result of the rice tariffication law that caused the plummeting palay prices.”
“The RFFA is a plain dole out. It’s mere palliative to the deep-seated problems of the domestic rice industry that the government itself created. It’s like farmers went on caroling before the government which gave them coins because it’s Christmas time. This government has no real concern for our farmers. They keep on treating rice farmers without dignity and respect,” the group said.
Earlier, Agriculture Sec. William Dar said each farmer will get P5,000 from a P3-billion fund from the Land Bank of the Philippines.
“For sure farmers will accept the P5,000, but this will not drown their call for the repeal of the Rice Liberalization Law,” said KMO chair Danilo Ramos.
KMP decried the “dole-out scheme as the latest in the unending series of incompetent and unsatisfactory palliatives that the government is carrying out to cushion the impacts of rice liberalization.”
KMP and watchdog Bantay Bigas is continuing the gathering of signatures against RA 11203. Copies of the initial 50,000 signatures of rice farmers were already submitted to Congress and Senate.
“We expect legislators to act upon the petition as soon as possible,” Ramos said.
