<\/p>\n
DEPARTMENT of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. on Monday declared a food security emergency on rice.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The declaration was based on the recommendations from the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC). <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “This emergency declaration allows us to release rice buffer stocks held by the National Food Authority (NFA) to stabilize prices and ensure that rice, a staple food for millions of Filipinos, remains accessible to consumers,” Tiu Laurel said in Department Circular 3.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The NPCC observed the persistently high prices of rice despite lower global market costs and the reduction of rice tariffs from 35 percent to 15 percent in July last year.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It cited data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showing a 17.9 percent rice inflation in September 2023, way higher than the 4 percent food inflation target of the government.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Regular and well-milled rice also remained high, rising by 19 percent and 20 percent, respectively, from the previous year.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n While the government has reduced tariffs to liberalize rice imports, retail prices continued to increase.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Republic Act 12078 or the amended Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) authorizes the DA secretary to declare a food security emergency in case of extraordinary price increases.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The amended RTL allows the DA chief to release the agency’s buffer stocks to government agencies, local government units (LGUs), and the Kadiwa ng Pangulo program.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Currently, the NFA has about 300,000 metric tons (MT) of buffer stocks, and the agency plans to release half of these over the next six months.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The agency said it may increase this volume if necessary.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Senate President Francis Escudero said he supports the declaration of a food emergency and urged the government to do everything to lower the price of rice.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier said that the declaration is meant “to force the price down” after the government has done everything to do so. <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to Marcos, prices of rice in the market remained high even after the decrease in the cost of production.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DEPARTMENT of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. on Monday declared a food security emergency on rice. The declaration was based on the recommendations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11640,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11638\/revisions\/11640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}