ILOILO – Sen. Imee Marcos enjoined local government units (LGUs) in this province to buy palay from farmers as cheap rice imports threaten to further plunge the price of locally-produced rice.
Marcos, who graced a party hosted by the Garins family of Guimbal town last night, said LGUs in Iloilo should emulate their counterparts in her province of Ilocos Norte: they buy palay from farmers at reasonable prices.
“This is an emergency measure. Buy-back na lang natin ang kayang bilhin sa ating farmers para hindi tuluyang bumagsak ang presyo,” Marcos said.
She also suggested that instead of giving cash subsidy to Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiaries, the Department of Social Welfare Development (DSWD) distribute rice.
“Kailangan siguro ang DSWD, rice subsidy na ang ibigay sa 4Ps instead na cash, rice galing sa ating farmers,” said Marcos, former Ilocos Norte governor.
Local farmers have lost as much as 41.6 percent of their investment in August, she said, with the farm gate price of palay plunging to as low as P7 per kilo, compared to their average production cost of P12.
Marcos also encouraged other government agencies like the Philippine National Police, Philippine Army and Bureau of Jail and Management and Penology, among others, to buy palay from farmers for their consumption needs.
Marcos urged the National Food Authority, too, to become aggressive in buying palay seeds from farmers but she admitted the agency will find it difficult to do so since eight million sacks of NFA rice are still stored in its warehouses.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) also has a calamity measure known as the Quick Response Fund (QRF) that could be tapped to buy palay from local farmers and triple the government’s “currently inadequate” rice buffer stock good only for 30 days, she said./PN
