FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2019II

Budget for palay buy endoned I

MORE than 50 lawmakers in the House ofRepresentatives

on Thursday frled a resoiution seeking a supplemental P15-
billion budget to allovr' the National Food Authodty to buy
unmilled rice from local farmers as prices plummet due to
imports.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary William Dar on
fhursday said two million bags ofrice seeds would be dis-
tributed to farmen as one of the mitigating measures to
ease the burden ofthose aflected by the Rice Tariffication
Law-
The House ofRepresentatives is expected to set a record
of sorts on Friday as it is poised to pass the P4.l-trillion
proposed national budget for 2020 on second reading and
on third and final reading on the same day.
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L*ggtut"'
The swift passage of the budgst fulfils Prcsidcnt.Rodrigo Du-
terte's desirc to have the money measure approved soonest
President Rodrigo Duterteb certification of ttre
pmposed PP4 1-
tri[ion national budgpt ftir 2020 conveys the irnpofiarce of its pas-
sase m filance meded governmefi Fogrdms and servjc€s
i13*"rot.nt op"titions must never be hanpered and our con-
situtional mandate to serve the Fitipino people must prevail over
partisan considerationsi' Prcsideifial Spokesman Salvador Pan-
elo said in a statement.
' TheHouse's JohtResolution 18 directstheNFAtousetheamount
palay
t, thr utg"ot pto"ot"tent of at leas{ 750,000 metric mns of
frorr local-farmers at P20 p€r kilo and to sell NFA lice to consumers
ariZ1 oer t<ito, COriela P-arty-lis Rep. erlene Brosas told
rcpod€rs'
- only puchase at leasr
iadmkers esrimate thai the N FA could
rso-ooO metti" too. c,r I million sack ofpalay a a faBtgale
priceof
pzo oer filo with its current P?-billion budget fo buffer $ocking tor
iOtg'. nio I' l"uja, frlaricel v. cruz aod MJ Bl'Dcaflor
o?porlt P^@/