{"id":238130,"date":"2019-11-22T21:18:42","date_gmt":"2019-11-23T02:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=238130"},"modified":"2019-11-22T21:18:42","modified_gmt":"2019-11-23T02:18:42","slug":"duterte-sees-no-need-to-suspend-rice-importation-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/11\/22\/duterte-sees-no-need-to-suspend-rice-importation-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte sees no need to suspend rice importation: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Duterte on Tuesday declared a temporary ban on rice importation to pave the way for the harvest for local rice from late September to mid-December. (File photo<\/a> by Adam Cohn\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has decided to push through with the rice importation amid harvest season, after hearing the explanation of Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary William Dar, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Friday.<\/p>\n

The lifting of suspension order on the importation of rice came following Duterte\u2019s meeting with Dar, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea at Malaca\u00f1ang Palace on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaka nakita niya na hindi pa kailangan<\/em>\u00a0(Perhaps, he sees that there is no need for it),\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo told Palace reporters when asked why Duterte lifted his suspension order on rice imports in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiguro napaliwanag ni<\/em>\u00a0Secretary Dar\u00a0kung ano ang mas magandang gawin. Siguro ganoon ang lumalabas kasi<\/em>\u00a0initially\u00a0ang<\/em>\u00a0order\u00a0niya<\/em>, suspension (Perhaps, Secretary Dar was able to provide better options. Perhaps, that\u2019s what happened because initially, he ordered the suspension),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte on Tuesday declared a temporary ban on rice importation to pave the way for the harvest for local rice from late September to mid-December.<\/p>\n

But on Thursday, Dar announced that the importation of the staple will continue, in line with the implementation of Republic Act (RA) 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law which liberalizes the importation of the staple.<\/p>\n

Instead of suspending the entry of imported rice, Duterte sought the imposition of \u201cstricter\u201d measures, Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (DA) will just be strict on the requirements for the importation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaka mas strikto ngayon kasi kapag ni-<\/em>liberalize\u00a0mo, hindi ka masyadong strikto hindi ba dahil open ang<\/em>\u00a0importation\u00a0mo<\/em>\u00a0(It will be stricter now because if you liberalize rice imports, you are not that strict because you are open to importation). This time, they will be very strict on that,\u201d Panelo added.<\/p>\n

Continued support<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo guaranteed that local farmers would continue getting support from the Duterte government to address the issue of plunging farmgate prices of palay (unhusked rice) as a result of the implementation of RA 11203.<\/p>\n

He said Duterte has directed the purchase of more rice from local farmers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the President is going to do now is to help the farmers by subsidizing and buying rice from them,\u201d the Palace official said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the rice importation,\u00a0parang wala nang bumibili sa kanila kasi mas mura. Sabi ni<\/em>\u00a0Presidente,\u00a0kahit malugi ang gobyerno, bibilhin na lang namin sa inyo<\/em>\u00a0(Because of the rice importation, some opted not to buy staple from them. The President said the government would buy rice from local farmers, despite the possibility that it might suffer losses),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In a speech in Taguig City Thursday, Duterte said it is better to have a warehouse filled with excess rice than a shortage, as long as his administration is able to help local farmers.<\/p>\n

Dar said Duterte already directed the National Food Authority (NFA) to raise the country\u2019s emergency buffer stock from 15 to 30 days by buying more unmilled rice from farmers.<\/p>\n

The NFA will accelerate the turnover of its inventory by buying more palay and selling more regular milled rice at an average of 20,000 50-kilogram bags of rice per day.<\/p>\n

A total of PHP3 billion will also be allocated for cash transfer extension that will benefit 600,000 farmers tilling one-half to two hectares of rice land every year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has decided to push through with the rice importation amid harvest season, after hearing the explanation …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":202406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238131,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238130\/revisions\/238131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}