Farmers groups on Friday called for the resignation of Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)
Secretary Arsenio Balisacan for their support for moves to cut tariff rates on rice imports from 35 percent to 10 percent.
“Importers won’t bring in that much because we follow that when it’s local harvest time, most of us won’t even bring in stocks, if at all,” said Orly Manuntag of the Philippine Rice Industry Stakeholders Movement . Inflation, or the rate at which prices of goods and services rise, climbed to 5.3 percent in August, compared to 4.7 percent in July.
He noted that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has not made any announcements about reviewing the tariff on rates, and has instead spoke on his unwillingness to import as a first choice. When farmers are suffering devastating losses, these economic managersare silent, laid back, and cite market forces to justify inaction. But when profits of importers are threatened by the very same ‘market forces’ they become activists and intervene in the market,” he said.
“We are harvesting… from now to December around 6.8 million metric tons of rice,” he said. “The majority of our supply can already supply [the country] up to March of next year. So what we need to do is plant again in September, October, November and December so our supply can reach until July next year.”