MANILA, Philippines — The declaration of food security for rice will only be applicable to areas experiencing skyrocketing rice prices, a Department of Agriculture (DA) official clarified on Saturday.
According to DA Spokesperson Asec. Arnel de Mesa, the emergency declaration is based on the Republic Act (RA) 12078, which amends the Rice Tariffication Law.
“Base kasi sa RA 12078 ay mag-intervene tayo doon sa mga lugar na may matataas, o nararanasan yung extraordinary presyo ng bigas so doon lang din mag-iintervene ang NFA … Kung mababa naman yung presyo sa ganitong lugar, di naman yun tinitignan,” De Mesa said in an interview with Radyo 630.
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(Based on the RA 12078, we will just intervene in areas experiencing extraordinary prices of rice, so NFA will only intervene in those areas… If the price of rice is low in a certain area, we will not intervene.)
The law gives the agriculture secretary the authority to declare food security emergencies in areas where food supply shortage or extraordinary price increase are observed.
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Rice emergency
DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. on Friday said that the government may declare the rice emergency on Tuesday as the National Price Coordinating Council released a resolution to recommend the emergency due to the “extraordinary increase” in rice prices.
Further, De Mesa said that they are still looking at the final decision of the declaration on which areas will be affected by the declaration.
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“Ang pangunahing una na titignan, yung mga key cities at metropolitan areas natin,” De Mesa added.
(We will primarily inspect key cities and metropolitan areas.)
Under the rice emergency declaration, rice stocks of the National Food Authority (NFA) will be sold to government agencies and local government units at P36 per kilogram and consumers at P38 per kilogram.
Laurel previously assured the public that the NFA has 300,000 tons of stock that they will be releasing. He also said that NFA rice stocks are not aging, adding that the rice is guaranteed to be of high quality, well-maintained, and visually appealing.