[Opinion] Rice Nation

In 1997, Justice Panganiban decided the landmark case of Tanada v Angara, determining the constitutionality of a World Trade Organization agreement on importation. The aim was to open the Filipino market to foreign partners by lowering the tariffs on their exports. Focused mainly on agricultural and industrial products, this would create an avenue for foreign investments in the country. The contention was that the said agreement runs contrary to Section 19, Article II of the Constitution, otherwise known as the Filipino First policy.

Every student should know by now that the Supreme Court decided in favor of the WTO Agreement. Its interpretation of the constitutional provision is that there is no mandate for the Philippines to completely be self-reliant, that what is required under the 1987 Constitution is to allow the Filipino business merely the opportunity to be able to compete with the foreign importers.

Over twenty years later, the Philippines faces one of the most dumbfounded problems it has ever faced. Even though we’re a country of rice consumers, even though we have vast lands, even though these vast lands produce millions of metric tons of palay per year, we are facing a rice crisis, and who’s getting the brunt of it? Our farmers.

RA11203 or The Rice Tariffication Act was passed in February of this year. The law lifted the restrictions on the quantitative importation of rice into the country. This has caused our farmers their livelihood, drastically worsening their economic situation and leaving them with mere scraps to live on while most of their income is lost due to reduced prices and the loan settlements they had to incur just to finish the harvest season.

Since the law was passed, thousands of rice farmers have gone out of business. Neither were the rice mills saved from this crisis. The rice industry is slowly being paralyzed. Although the farmers admitted to the existence of the P10-Billion Rice Competitive Enhancement Fund aimed at helping them improve productivity and remain competitive, they said that access to the fund was limited as many local farmers do not even have bank accounts in order to contract the proper loan.

Almost every day the solution to the rice crisis gains new mileage on its tracks as more and more citizens, farmers, and legislators join the cause. Let’s go back, what was the reason for the passage of the law? To address the shortage of affordable rice. Did the law succeed with regard to this matter? YES. At what cost?

After just seven months, the holistic ramifications of the law have reared its ugly head. Although the ordinary consumer saves a couple pesos per kilo of rice, the large-scale impact of the rice crisis has left the whole country dismayado and lugi. As one of the most basic commodities of the Philippines, rice plays a vital role in Filipino culture. It’s ironic, if not pathetic, that RA11203 led to the collapse of the very industry it seeks to protect. Keeping in mind the interpretation of the Supreme Court in the settled jurisprudence on the Filipino First policy, is it time to repeal the Rice Tariffication Act? Has it not curtailed the rice industry of the Philippines to the point that there is no competition between our local farmers as against the foreign importers?

It’s high time that the government sees the gravity of this rice crisis and conclude the Rice Tariffication Act unconstitutional. In the short time the law has been enacted our country has experienced tremendous loss. This must not be left continued, otherwise, where would we end up? ■

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