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Important liberalization has dealt a severe blow to local vegetable and rice producers. In July and August alone, vegetable growers in Benguet lost P21 billion when imported vegetables from Australia, New Zealand and The Netherlands supplanted local vegetables.
When confronted by vegetable farmers in August, Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor said that only 302,405 kilos of vegetables were being imported, an equivalent of 0.17% of the overall demand. He also said that there were only two vegetable importers in the country, with Rustan's Supermarket at the lead. Montemayor, however, admitted this October that Rustan's imported 266 tons of upland vegetable from January to September, despite the fact that all of the vegetables it imported, such as carrots, potatoes, cabbages, mushrooms and cauliflower, were in sufficient supply in the local market. The vegetable farmers were even more disappointed to find out that not only Rustan's but 13 other companies nationwide import up to 37 kinds of vegetables. In another mark of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime's surrender of the national interest in international trade, most of the vegetables imported by the Philippines come from Australia, which imposes many restrictions on its importation of mangoes and other agricultural products from the Philippines. Montemayor strained to defend the importations, saying they were all legal. Aside from the legal importations, the smuggling of vegetables is also rampant. Due to huge losses, thousands of vegetable growers from Benguet affiliated with Alyansa dagiti Pesante iti Taeng-Kordilyera or APIT-TAKO, launched a series of protests this October to demand the suspension of the implementation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). In accordance with GATT, quantitative restrictions on the importation of vegetables and other food products have been lifted and tariffs reduced. All tariffs on imported food are set to be abolished by 2004. As vegetable growers in Benguet are up in arms, the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL) is also waging a campaign to demand a stop to the regime's import liberalization policy. The AMGL asserted that it was necessary to support local rice producers by providing them subsidies. GATT prohibits subsidies to farmers. The AMGL also assailed the involvement of relatives and close associates of Macapagal-Arroyo in rice smuggling. It said that the influx of imported and smuggled rice were behind the slump in palay prices to as low as P5 per kilo, especially during harvest time. Rice importations from Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan and India are set to reach 1.14 million metric tons (mt) this year. In the first six months of 2003 alone, the country plans to import one mt. The AMGL condemned the growing cases of conversion of agricultural land, spurred by no less than the government, and the widespread unemployment and poverty this has engendered in the countryside. In the face of all this, the AMGL demanded that the Macapagal-Arroyo regime support local agriculture and increase the volume of its palay procurement from Filipino farmers. It demanded the increase of the support price for palay from P7.50 to P15.00 per kilo. 
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