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NewsTranscript
00:00 Congresswoman, don't let the price ceiling or price cap on rice be fulfilled. We will now have the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, Senator Cinthia Villar.
00:09 Senator Villar, good morning.
00:11 Good morning, Egan and good morning to our listeners.
00:16 What can you say about the government's implementation of the price ceiling on rice?
00:21 I think the government has no choice because there is no shortage of rice and this is just done by cartels and hoarding.
00:33 That's why the price cap should be fulfilled. And the price cap is reasonable, everyone will still earn from P41 to P45 per kilo.
00:43 But the retailers are getting angry, Senator.
00:46 They bought more than P50 and they will lower the price. They will lose P1,500 per day.
00:58 You know, the full costing of rice is P13 per kilo. There are farmers in Nueva Ecija who can only cost P8 per kilo after the government helped with the rice competitiveness enhancement fund of RTL and National Rice Program.
01:22 So the range is P8 to P13 per kilo. So they should buy NFA of P19 per kilo at times to P38.
01:38 So they have a target of P41 to P45. That's why they cannot say that they bought expensive rice. No one will stop buying expensive rice.
01:50 The rice farmers and millers have called for the amendment of the rice tariffication law to give the National Food Authority the power to buy rice from our farmers.
02:04 Senator, you know in 2018, rice prices rose from P32 to P40 per kilo to P48 to P60 per kilo. The president and the national government panicked.
02:20 That's why they passed the rice tarification law to us. The farmers should help to be competitive. In Vietnam, they produce their rice at P6 per kilo.
02:35 That's why we raised the rice competitiveness enhancement fund from the tariff on rice. Because in NFA, there's no tariff collection.
02:45 Now we are collecting almost P20 billion a year, P10 billion is being brought to the rice competitiveness enhancement fund for mechanization and distribution of seeds.
03:00 That's the problem of farmers according to study. That's why they are not competitive in Vietnam.
03:06 We also have a national rice program that provides fertilizer and hybrid seedlings. Why are they angry?
03:17 The NFA removed the power to import because they are under the cartel. The NFA is being removed from me. I didn't remove it because I feel sorry for the employees.
03:31 But they were under the cartel before. Now, they have the power to buy from farmers, but they didn't buy from farmers.
03:40 Okay. You mentioned hoarders and smugglers. Every time the Senate hears about them, their names are being mentioned. Why are they still there?
03:52 As you know, the implementation of the law has a defect. That's why this month, we will pass an amendment to the anti-smuggling,
04:04 which includes cartel and hoarding as economic sabotage and non-bailable. We will pass that to the Senate this month.
04:13 Finally, we will be strict on cartel and hoarding and we will create an anti-smuggling and cartel force. That's all we will do.
04:31 If they demand, they will hear. It's like a union.
04:37 Does the Senate have a plan to get help from the retailers who will close down?
04:43 The Congress said that there's a two billion budget to help small rice retailers.
04:52 So the Senate is included in that?
04:55 Yes.
04:56 Thank you very much Senator Cinthia Villar. Take care.
04:59 Thank you very much, Igan. Thank you to our listeners.
05:04 Igan, you are the first in the news. Subscribe to GMA Integrated News on YouTube.
05:10 To all the listeners abroad, follow us on GMA Pinoy TV and www.gmanews.tv.
05:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]