Rice Tariffication Law a failure, says ex-agri chief

FORMER Department of Agriculture secretary Manny Piñol believes that the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) was a failure and that he wanted to revise it.

Piñol, who is running for senator in the May 2022 elections under the party of presidential aspirant Senator Panfilo Lacson, raised this in a press conference in Kalibo, Aklan, saying that three years since the law was signed, the state of agriculture in the country worsened.

The RTL was signed into law in February 2019.

“I expressed my opposition in the passage of the RTL yet the economic managers did not listen to me. I know the RTL will fail. If I win, the review of the RTL would be my priority on the first day of office,” Piñol said.

The signing of the RTL made the price of palay cheaper and the prices of fertilizer higher. These is what discouraged farmers from farming, said Piñol.

“The RTL also has a mandate of P5 billion worth of mechanization intended for the distribution to the farmers. However, the mechanization distribution is not compatible with the rice fields. The Philippines still has around 12,000 kilometers of farm-to-market road needed to be built,” he added.

Piñol worked as secretary of DA for three years under President Rodrigo Duterte administration. He resigned and worked as chair of the Mindanao Development Authority. (