MANILA, Philippines A lawmaker wants a bill seeking life imprisonment for convicted rice smugglers

immediately passed into law.

The bill also aims to impose a huge fine an amount double the value of the rice smuggled on convicted rice
smugglers.
Thus, if the smuggled rice is valued at P500 million, the smugglers would be fined P1 billion.
The bill seeks to give the National Food Authority (NFA) sole and exclusive power to import rice, make it illegal
for any person, association, corporation or entity to import rice, and to exempt NFA-imported rice from
Customs duties.
Northern Samar Rep. Emil Ong, a former NFA administrator, said House Bill 3897 pending in the House of
Representatives committee on agriculture and food must be immediately passed in light of unabated
smuggling of rice.
During my time as NFA administrator, rice smuggling was zero, he said.

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Why? Its because we didnt impose duties or tariff on rice importation, and exclusively only the NFA could
import rice. It had no power to delegate importation to cooperatives or any sector.
Ong said the bill is timely and a calculated response to stop once and for all rampant rice smuggling that has
deprived the government of billions in revenue.
Some of those in power or have influence have made a livelihood from importing rice because they are able to
secure permits to import because of their connections, he said.
Mike Domingo, convenor of People for Empowerment and Truth (PET), an anti-corruption watchdog, has urged
the House leadership to immediately act on the bill.
We call on the House leadership to act with dispatch and give due importance to this proposed law, inasmuch
as we see this as the best weapon that the government could use in its battle against rice smugglers, he said.
Leonardo Montemayor, Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) president, urged the government to be steadfast in
its commitment to protect the interest of farmers against attempts to effectively legalize smuggling of rice and
other agricultural commodities.
Unscrupulous groups caught smuggling rice have resorted to questioning the legal basis for requiring import
permits from the NFA, he added.

Montemayor said Congress passed Republic Act 8178 in 1994 precisely to amend several laws that used to
impose quantitative restrictions (QRs) on imports of vegetables, meat and other products except rice.
This was soon after Congress ratified our membership in the WTO (World Trade Organization), he said.
If it is true that our accession to the WTO superseded all local laws, then why did Congress have to pass RA
8178 into law?
FFF vice-president Ruben Presilda, a rice farmer from Occidental Mindoro, said QRs are needed as the
government is still finding ways to help rice farmers improve their competitiveness.
If we allow unlimited volumes of cheap imported rice to come in, palay prices will drop and discourage farmers
from planting, he said. Eventually, these farmers and their families will migrate to the cities to look for other
jobs.
Presilda said imposing QRs would also allow the government to monitor
to complement the local supply.

the volume of imported rice needed

What will stop these traders from colluding or selling the imported rice at a higher price? he asked.
What if they stop buying from local farmers because it will be more profitable for them to import?
Removing the QRs and giving traders full freedom to import does not mean that rice prices will automatically go
down, Presilda said.
Retailers asked to extend hours
The Alliance of Filipino Rice Retailers Association (AFRRA) has asked accredited retailers distributing NFA rice
to the public to extend their operating hours in markets nationwide.
Danilo Garcia, AFRRA national president, said the extension of operating hours of accredited NFA rice retailers
was necessary to allay fears of a rice shortage and hunger in rural and urban poor communities.
AFRRA would like the 8 a.m.-5 p.m. operating hours extended to 6 a.m.-7 p.m., he added.
Garcia said the NFA had adequate inventories to supply any increased buying of rice resulting from the
extension of operating hours.
The NFA was ready to issue additional allocations of cheaper but good quality rice for consumers, he added.
AFRRA also called on lawmakers to join their group to support the NFA programs for the stabilization of the
price of rice, especially with the approaching lean months of June up to August.
AFRRA said NFA rice continues to be sold at a range of P27 to P32 in public markets.

The quality of the rice is equal to commercial rice sold in markets at P40, he added.
New agency proposed
A government agency to be known as the Quarantine and Inspection Services is being proposed to stamp out
smuggling.
It will be patterned after the Canada Border Services.
The Samahang Industriya sa Agrikultura (SINAG) made the proposal in a position paper submitted to the
Senate committee on food and agriculture chaired by Sen. Cynthia Villar.
We know that the fight against smuggling was going to be tough, hard and intense,read the position paper.
we persevered and continued the fight for there is no other choice for the local industry, we cannot sit idly
while smuggling our livelihoods and wipe-out the local agriculture industry.
SINAG also sought the creation of an inward foreign manifest and import entry declaration to monitor a
shipment at least two days before arrival in the country.
It would be undertaken by the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the
Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
It also proposed the strict implementation of the global standard of Quarantine First Policy.
SINAG said despite the World Trade Organization (WTO) and liberalization policies, countries worldwide have
placed public safety over trade and Customs collection.
Unloading of containers would not be allowed unless the quarantine officer and a representative of the local
industry have been allowed inside the cargo vessel to get samples for third party testing, SINAG added.
With Rainier Allan Ronda, Christina Mendez

Rice Smuggling Threatens Indonesia, Philippines

The Philippines massive purchases of rice at sharply increased prices from its neighbors are creating a
fast-buck opportunity for traders in Indonesia, where prices are controlled, to smuggle the commodity
out through Singapore for eventual sale in the Philippines.
Rice in government-controlled storage in Indonesia sells for US$436.80 per tonne at a time when the
Philippine government and rice traders are offering up to US$1,000 per tonne in Vietnam and
Thailand. The skyrocketing rice price and the attendant smuggling opportunities are generating
political concerns in both countries, with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last week
ordering government officials to prevent rice smuggling to other countries.
A top political source in Jakarta last week said the government is increasingly worried that rising rice
prices and potential shortages could cause political unrest. This is rice, and that means trouble if it
goes wrong, said the source. Yudhoyono has also sent a letter to United Nations Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon urging him to take measures to ease speculation in commodity markets.

Meanwhile, in Manila, Senator Loren Legarda earlier warned of the possibility of social unrest and
political instability for Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyos already shaky government, which
has endured a continuing series of coup attempts and impeachment moves fuelled by corruption
scandals. Both countries are facing rising deficits on the amount of funds they must pour into
adjusting subsidies to control rice prices. The Philippine National Food Authority said it could post a
loss of as much as US$1 billion for 2008, compared to a US$762.1 million deficit last year.
After steady gains against the US dollar that made it the worlds second-best performing currency, the
peso fell by 3.1 percent in March before stabilizing; the Indonesian rupiah fell 1.1 percent in the same
period as both governments began bracing for budget deficits. Arroyo said earlier this month that the
Philippines likely wouldnt meet its goal of balancing its fiscal budget in the current year.
Still, it is debatable how real the global rice shortage actually is. Much of it is due to a complex set of
factors, including hoarding, speculation and decisions by some rice-exporting nations, notably Vietnam
and India, both of which have announced different forms of export restrictions to protect domestic
consumers. On Monday, Thai exporters said they wouldn't participate in a Philippine rice tender next
week because Manila said it wouldn't guarantee contracts. Exporters appear to be holding onto
stocks at a time when importers like the Philippines are desperate to bolster their stocks. Hoarding
including by growers and traders in the Philippines itself has added to the problems.
Some of the broader food price dilemma has been laid at the door of the United States and the
European Union for promoting corn-based ethanol production, which caused the US, for instance, to
divert massive amounts of land previously planted in soyabeans into subsidized corn for
ethanol. Some 30 percent of the USs corn crop is expected to be diverted to ethanol in
2009. Frances agriculture minister, Michel Barnier, told the Financial Times last week that it is the
Americans biofuel targets that are destabilizing the world as other crops rise in price to fill the
need. The UNs Food and Agriculture Organization disputes that reasoning, saying biofuels are
responsible for about 10 percent of the rise in food prices.
But it is the Philippines, where the so-called miracle rice that raised yields across the region was
developed at the International Rice Research Institute in the 1960s, that has earned everybodys
notice. Two books, both asking why the Philippines cant grow more rice, have become popular
reading. It is common practice to blame the Philippine government for the domestic rice shortage, and
there are reasons to do so. The countrys infrastructure, after decades of neglect, is woefully
inadequate for transport. As much as 25 percent of rice is lost to insects, rats and other problems.
But according to an IRRI spokesman, the Philippines doesnt do that bad a job growing
rice. Productivity is quite high, the spokesman said, with Filipino farmers producing 3.4 tonnes of rice
per hectare as against Thai farmers, who produce only 2.4 tonnes per hectare. And the quality is high.
Although it is not widely known, Filipino farmers receive a much higher price for their palay (unhusked
rice at harvest) than do farmers in neighboring countries, according to the book, Why does the
Philippines Import Rice? published by IRRI. By and large, they live in better houses, and are more
likely to have electricity, running water and hygienic toilets than other farmers. They hire the majority
of labor that works their farms, spending about 18 days a year per person at the fundamental task of
growing rice.
The Philippines problem boils down to land and people, the IRRI spokesman says. They have too little
of the former and too many of the latter. The Philippines is an archipelagic nation of 7,105 islands, few
of them with estuarine areas ideal for growing rice. As in much of Asia, the possibility of increasing
planting areas is nearly exhausted. Yield increases have begun to slow as well. Added to that, the
Philippines population is perhaps the fastest growing in the region and one of the fastest growing in
the world.

The countrys population has now topped 90 million, with three babies being born every minute,
according to one estimate. The population has doubled since the late 1970s and is expected to double
again over the next 30 years unless family planning gets seriously underway. Until the country can do
something about that, which appears highly unlikely given the primacy of the Catholic Church, its rice
shortages will continue no matter how fast its farmers increase productivity.