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Rice Tariffication Law Wapay Sure

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Jonnel Gadingan
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16 views2 pages

Rice Tariffication Law Wapay Sure

Uploaded by

Jonnel Gadingan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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“RICE TARIFFICATION LAW: THE DARK AGE OF THE LOCAL FARMERS IN THE PHILIPPINES”

The Republic Act 11203 named Rice Tariffication Law was implemented in February 2019 in order to
allow the large number of Rice importation coming from foreign countries or abroad in order to provide
the cheap price of rice. As a result, Philippine consumers were able to buy rice without the need of
suffering to the high priced rice in the Philippine markets. Thus, it is clear that this law was the "solution"
that the Philippine government had chosen so that all Filipinos nationwide would be able to eat rice as
promised by President Duterte way back in 2019.

Moreover, the Philippine government had thought that this solution was necessary because the
entrance of the COVID-19 pandemic made the Philippine economy stop working and reduce the
productivity of all companies and businesses. It must be hard for the Philippine government because
they were fully aware of the damages that it could give from both parties, farmers, and consumers, with
the decision-making that they need to come up with.

For that reason, all local employees and business owners are suffering from the financial crisis
because the source of income was constricted. Knowing that the local farmers would also have no
choice but to increase the price setting in locally farmed rice. Hence, the government had a moral
dilemma on whether accept large importations or support the local farmers. The problem for this
dilemma would be either sacrificing the local farmers’ revenue for the good of the many or sacrificing
the many Filipinos suffering from hunger due to their low purchasing power in rice. The Philippine
government is well aware of the Filipino culture’s consumption of rice as part of their everyday meal, so
they could never compromise nor decrease the production of rice because many Filipinos will suffer.

Hence, the Philippine government decided to impose RA no. 11203 on February 219 as the
answer to their dilemma. They chose to let the Filipino farmers suffer for the sake of the majority of the
Filipinos’ hunger. However, is this the best solution or option that the Philippines could offer to the
country? How much damage did this law had caused to the Filipino farmers? Is this an ethical solution to
the problem? The answer is straight and simple, which is the Philippine government should have not
imposed the Rice Tariffication Law and should choose to support the farmers instead by increasing the
exportation of rice and increasing the production of farmers for better income. Not to be biased, it is
indeed true that the Rice Tariffication Law had helped its Filipino citizens to afford rice since the price set
became much affordable to all social classes. The Philippines has a large volume of people in poverty, so
most of its citizens are in low to a medium class of households. As a result, everyone in the country will
be able to be fed thanks to this newly imposed law. Moreover, the local farmers are being challenged to
increase and improve their local rice quality so that they will not be overpowered by those imported
rice. Hence, the idea of making the local farmers to be globally competitive was viewed as one of the
benefits that the law could provide. However, the Philippine government should at least consider how
much damage they had done to the local rice farmers of the Philippines. This law was like a piece of
living evidence that the Philippine government betrayed the agricultural sector because they were
willing to sacrifice the lives of the farmers in order to gain an easy solution for the hungry Filipinos. The
Philippine government is a public servant that aims to provide aid for all Filipinos. Therefore, it is a big
irony for the Philippine government to implement a law that will hurt the domestic price setting and
make the local farmers suffer because of their very low income. This disappointing treatment of the
Philippine government to the local farmers will create detrimental effects because it might someday
reduce the interest of younger generations to take over the agricultural sector. The main asset of the
country is not its industrial economy but rather its agriculture and natural resources. The Philippine
government should focus more on supporting the local farmers because they surely have an idea of how
to supply the whole nation. Thinking for an increased importation is like a shortcut to the problem but
this could tremendously hurt the farmers. Therefore, the position is clear that the Rice Tariffication Law
should be junked by the Philippine government’s legislation.

References:

Clarete, R. (2019, August 11). Rice tariffication problems and measures to deal with them. Business
World. https://www.bworldonline.com/rice-tariffication-problemsand-measures-to-deal-with-them/
Department of Finance. (2019, December 30). The Rice Tariffication Law and how it affects you. GMA
News Online. https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/food/720331/the-rice-tariffication-lawand-
how-it-affects-you/story/ Ocampo, K. F., & Pobre, K. K. (2021, April 14). Fighting the Good Fight: The
Case of the Philippine Rice Sector. Asia Foundation. https://asiafoundation.org/2021/04/14/fighting-the-
good-fight-the-case-of-thephilippine-rice-sector/

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