The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday expressed confidence in the Senate’s backing to advance amendments on the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL).

This, after Senator Francis Pangilinan, chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, during his visit to the DA Central Office in Quezon City on Monday, expressed support to prioritize the revision of the RTL to help ensure the welfare of farmers, boost productivity, and realize food security in the Philippines.

“With this visit of Senator Pangilinan, we are confident we could secure the backing of the Senate for these amendments that could ensure the modernization of the rice industry and the overall agriculture sector, securing a better future for our hardworking farmers and fisherfolk,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in a statement.

“Our fighting target is to get these proposed amendments to the RTL enacted into law before the start of the harvest season, which begins March next year.”

Pangilinan, likewise, underscored the urgency for Congress to take immediate action “to fix a lot of things in the current RTL, as well as improve the provision of direct support and extension services for farmers and fisherfolk, down to the grassroots level.”

The agriculture chief, in turn, expressed optimism that these amendments may be passed “sooner.”

“If we could convince President (Ferdinand R.) Marcos (Jr.) to certify a bill that includes all these amendments as urgent, then we should get this passed sooner,” he said.

One of the proposed amendments is the restoration of the powers of the National Food Authority (NFA), to allow the agency to perform market intervention to stabilize rice prices, manage rice buffer stocks, and set a floor price for palay (unhusked rice), among others. To date, NFA is tasked to ensure rice buffer stocking.

Tiu Laurel earlier said that the RTL, if left unamended, “may kill” the rice industry due to liberalized importation.

Before Pangilinan’s visit, the DA earlier expressed support for the proposed Rice Industry and Consumer Empowerment (RICE) Act under House Bill No. 1, filed by House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, which seeks to reauthorize the NFA to intervene in the rice market by accrediting retail outlets and selling affordable rice directly to the public. (PNA)