Farmers condemned the regime for its plan to declare a “food emergency” which they said was not a solution to high rice prices. “This is another band-aid solution and does not address the root of the problem of private businessmen and rice cartels’ control over the supply and price of rice,” Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas chairperson emeritus and former Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano said.

Mariano said the Rice Liberalization Law (RLL) unleashed voracious businessmen to manipulate the price of rice in the market, while our local farmers continued to lose earnings. If the government is serious about lowering the price of rice, it should scrap the RLL, he said.

It “(should) increase support for local production, and enforce strict regulations against big businessmen from hoarding and overpricing. Instead of cartels, the government should be in control of the supply and price of rice,” he said.

A “food emergency” is set to be declared in February to allow the NFA to sell rice to local governments at lower prices. According to the regime, the agency can sell its stocks of rice at a price of ₱36/kilo. It claims its capability to lower the average price of rice to ₱38. The NFA wants to dispose up to 300,000 metric tons of rice.

Before this plan, the regime also promised to lower prices by lowering tariffs on imported rice. Before this, it attempted to impose a minimum price of rice, and most recently, setting a “maximum” price. All these superficial schemes utterly failed.