On the third anniversary of the enactment of the Rice Liberalization Law (RLL) or RA 11203, farmers

group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) challenges the candidates for the upcoming national
elections to stand with farmers and call for its repeal.

By removing quantitative restrictions on rice importation and replacing it with 35% tariff on rice
imports from the ASEAN region and higher from elsewhere, the RRL was purported to be the solution
to soaring rice prices in 2018. The government also promised to use the tariffs to support programs that
will make Filipino rice farmers more “competitive.”

Since its enactment three years ago, however, the RLL has had a significant negative impact on our
farmers, the local rice business, and the country’s food self-sufficiency and security, according to KMP
national chairperson Danilo Ramos. “It did not serve the welfare of both producers and consumers, and
instead undermined the livelihoods of millions of farmers and pushed many of them into hunger,
bankruptcy, and indebtedness, while retail prices remain unaffordable to poor families with low
purchase power and household incomes,” Ramos says.

Rice watch group Bantay Bigas estimates that under the RRL, rice farmers lost P75 billion in 2019 and
P90 billion in 2020, or a total of about P165 billion in potential income lost, based on 2018 farm gate
prices before the law. Because of bankruptcy and indebtedness, farmers are also being displaced from
their lands through land grabbing and land conversion to make way for large corporations. This
inevitably results in the further decline of the country’s rice self-sufficiency, which has already sank
from 95% in 2016 to 86% in 2018, and is expected to fall further so long as liberalization continues

Ramos asserts that RLL, which is based on the neoliberal framework, is nothing but freedom for those
with capital. “This is the Duterte Legacy—relinquishing the government’s authority to regulate the
national rice industry and serving only the interests of foreign monopoly traders importing rice and
local big private traders dictating low farm gate prices in the countryside,” he says. “To avert the
complete destruction of the local rice industry and agriculture, the rice liberalization law must be
repealed. Farmers have had enough of Duterte’s policies of deregulation and unlimited rice imports that
has become a huge burden to them and the rice-consuming Filipino population.”

KMP says candidates running in the May 2022 presidential elections should stand with farmers to save
the rice industry, make national food security a priority issue, and join the broadening demand for the
repeal of the RLL. The group also urges candidates to support and push for the enactment of the House
Bill 477 or the Rice Industry Development Act (RIDA), which outlines the genuine development of our
domestic rice industry towards self-reliance.

The proposed RIDA bill proposes important state policies which will address the problem of rice
importation, low productivity of rice, and the situation of rice farmers all over the country. Among the
main objectives of RIDA is to ensure rice self-sufficiency.
said Filipinos must unite and stand with farmers to save the rice industry. “Our future and our national
food security would be at stake if we will continue to allow unlimited rice importation.”

Data gathered by Amihan and Bantay Bigas revealed that successive bankruptcy forced a farmer
owning a hectare of rice land to put up his land as collateral for his loan worth P400,000. Farmers of
Brgy. Carmen of the said town, reported that around 40 percent of rice lands in their area or an
estimated 80 hectares are mortgaged due to depressed prices. Moreover, in Gabaldon town, some
farmers of cultivating rice lands near highways were pressed to sell their farms at P1 million per
hectare.

KMP national chairperson Danilo Ramos asserts that “through rice liberalization, the Duterte regime
has unleashed a gigantic man-made disaster directed against poor Filipino rice farmers.”

Sa ikatlong taong anibersaryo ng pagsasabatas sa Rice Libebralization Law o RA 11203, hinahamon ng

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) ang mga kumakandidato para sa darating na halalan na
tumindig kasama ng mga magsasaka at manawagan para sa pagbabasura rito.

Research group IBON said that rice liberalization has undermined the livelihoods of millions of
farmers and most likely even pushed many into bankruptcy. It will only worsen the country’s food
insecurity, the group said, as already seen with record high rice imports.
Enacted one year ago, the Rice Liberalization Law or Republic Act (RA) 11203 removed quantitative
restrictions on rice importation and replaced this with 35% tariff on rice imports from the region and
higher from elsewhere. The law was justified as the solution to high rice prices in 2018. Tariffs from
the rice imports were also supposed to fund programs to make Filipino rice farmers competitive,
eventually increasing their incomes.

Kami, mga magsasaka, manggagawang-bukid, konsyumer at mga stakeholders sa industriya ng bigas

ay naninindigan laban sa at nanawagan ng pagbabasura sa Rice Liberalization Law (RA 11203).
I. RTL overview

Sa ikatlong anibersaryo ng pagsasabatas ng Rice Tariffication Law,

Panagutin si Duterte sa pagpapahintulot sa pagkamatay ng industriya ng Ph rice, talamak na estado ng

kagutuman - mga grupong nagbabantay sa bigas

Last week ng February last year, nag shoot up ang presyo ng bigas. Tumaas ang presyo ng bigas
nationwide.

Mababang presyo ng palay

II. Refute RTL "high yields" prop, empty promises

Nakaka engganyo dahil pangako nito na gawing competitive ang mga magsasaka. Kaya makipag
kumpetensya sa mga bansang pinag aangkatan ng bigas gaya ng thailand, vietnam, laos.

Yung cost of production noong 2018 sa pagprodysu ng isang kilong bigas ay 12 pesos, samantala sa
vietnam at thaiiland ay 8 pesos per kilo.

III. Import dependency (Duterte legacy)

IV. Urge/challenge candidates to repeal RTL, sign bantay bigas petition, contrast RTL with RIDA

Himukin ang mga kandidato at ipetisyon na ibasura ang RTL. Aabot sa 2.9 million mt ang aangkatin ng
bansa. Magmamakaawa nanaman ba sa mga traders?

Sa ilalim ng RIDA, gobyerno ang bibili sa palay ng magsasaka. May subsidyo ito para diirektang bilhin
ng gobyerno ang palay ng magsasaka. At ang gobyerno ang magbebenta nito sa pamamagitan ng
subsidized price.