THE Senate yesterday approved on third and final reading a resolution allowing the government to distribute locally produced palay instead of cash to 4.1 million social welfare beneficiaries.
The P33.9-billion rice subsidy will come from this year’s national budget and will go to beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, according to Senate Joint Resolution 8.
The palay must come from farmers in the provinces of Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Oriental and Occidental Mindoro, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Zamboanga del Sur and Iloilo.
The measure was filed in light of the Rice Tariffication Law, which removed restrictions on rice imports.
“Despite the efforts made by the government to protect the local rice industry, large stocks of imported rice have depressed the buying price of local palay to levels way below the cost of production,” according to the resolution.
As of Aug. 22, the National Food Authority (NFA) had in its custody 209,525 metric tons (MT) of imported rice and another 209,525 MT of locally procured palay.
“The warehouses of NFA are already full, and the problem of oversupply is expected to exacerbate during the period from October to December, which is the peak palay harvest season.”
This has caused average palay prices to go down to P16.28 a kilo from P23.10 a kilo a year earlier.
A similar resolution is pending at the committee level of the House of Representatives. — CAT
