3 years of high prices, hunger for Filipinos under Marcos Jr.
For KMP, the three years of Marcos Jr is a scam. “While the government keeps importing rice and other food, our local farmers continue to suffer losses. The President’s promises to lower rice prices and uplift farmers have proven to be a complete failure.”
By Michel Joy Radam
Bulatlat.com
BULACAN—Affordable rice and food for Filipinos.
This is one of the promises of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration. But for the past three years, the prices of basic commodities remain high even if the overall inflation has dropped to 1.4 percent in June this year compared to 3.7 percent inflation rate in June 2024.
This is evident in the lives of Roberto Ramirez and Rodelio Reyes, longtime farmers in Bulacan, who struggle to make ends meet through farming.
They refute the claims of the Marcos administration that it has made progress in lowering food prices, with food inflation dropping and rice becoming more affordable. Both Ramirez and Reyes said they have not felt any relief from these supposed improvements, as the high costs of basic goods continue to weigh heavily on their daily lives.
Barely getting by
Ramirez is a 56-year-old farmer who has been tilling land since he was 18 and has spent the past 12 years working on a farm in Guiguinto, Bulacan.
“We’ll just have to get by,” was Ramirez’s answer to Bulatlat when asked on how his P600 a day salary in a farm manages to support his family of three.
His work is also seasonal and unreliable with tasks like threshing or machine operation lasting only a few days and often followed by week-long breaks.
Ramirez explained that since the implementation of Rice Tariffication Law (RA 11203), even the landowner is operating at a loss with the current buying price of palay at only P12 to P13 per kilo.
This is corroborated by Reyes, who has a land co-owned with his siblings. Reyes, 48, told Bulatlat that their palay was sold at its lowest price for P12 per kilo last cropping season in December.
“When the price is just P12, that only amounts to 600 pesos per sack,” Reyes said. “That’s only enough to recover the capital, but often, when all expenses are listed and calculated, it’s clear that farmers are left with little to no profit.”
According to Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), farmers are incurring losses every harvest. “Traders are buying palay for only P10 to P12 per kilo. Some are even lower, at P8 to P10 per kilo. Where else can you end up with that?” lamented KMP Chairperson Danilo Ramos.
The farmers group attributed the low cost of palay to the Rice Tariffication Law or the RA 11203, which the government claimed would lower the retail price of rice. But the price of rice has not significantly lowered since its enactment of the law. What’s evident is that it is the farmers who suffer the consequences of RA 11203. The KMP described it as “catastrophic for local rice producers” as it only resulted in an influx of imported rice in the Philippine market.
“The law removed quantitative restrictions on imports in favor of tariffs, which were supposed to fund competitiveness programs. Instead, the market was flooded with cheap imported rice, driving down the price of locally produced palay and squeezing small farmers out of the supply chain,” the KMP said.
The group added that the RA 11203 stripped farmers of state protection and placed the entire industry in the hands of private importers and traders.
The Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), which is supposed to deliver a compensation mechanism, has failed to reach the poorest farmers. They added that the mechanization and training programs were implemented with limited scope and accountability, favoring large and well-connected producers.
The KMP added that the National Food Authority’s diminished role has left farmers with no reliable buyer during the harvest season.
Rising food insecurity
While the RA 11203 promised to lower the price of rice in the market, data from Department of Agriculture’s (DA) price monitoring as of July 19, showed that the cost of imported regular milled rice within the National Capital Region costs between P38 and P43 per kilo. The same goes with local regular milled rice that ranges from P38 to P43 per kilo. Meanwhile, imported well-milled rice ranges from P43 to P47 per kilo and P43 to P46 per kilo for local well-milled rice.
The latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) conducted from April 23 to 28 showed that 20 percent of Filipino families experienced “involuntary hunger,” defined as being hungry or having nothing to eat at least once in the past three months.
This indicates the highest hunger rate in Mindanao at 26.3%, followed by Metro Manila at 20.3%, Visayas at 19.7%, and Balance Luzon or areas in Luzon outside Metro Manila at 17%.
“The sight of empty pots and pans is a stark reality for too many Filipino families today,” stated Cora Agovida, deputy secretary general of Gabriela Philippines, during a protest July 7 outside the Department of Agriculture.
Aid or PR Gimmick?
On July 7, the BBM rice or Bente Bigas Meron Na program was launched under the Walang Gutom Program (WGP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Under this BBM rice program, beneficiaries receive P3,000 ($53.11) in food credits each month, which they can use through an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card. These credits are meant to be spent on basic food items and are divided into three categories: P1,500 ($26.55) for carbohydrates, P900 ($15.93) for protein, and P600 ($10.62) for fiber-rich foods.
These are currently sold and available only to vulnerable sectors including 4Ps beneficiaries, senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), solo parents, and minimum wage earners.
The think tank group Ibon foundation criticized the BBM rice program as an underfunded publicity stunt of the administration.
“It rations rice to poor households, scrimps on funding, and leaves out millions who also struggle to afford food,” Ibon said in a statement. “This is far from the sweeping effort needed to make P20 rice a reality and is just a public relations gimmick dressed up as policy.”
Ibon added that the P4.5 billion BBM Na! allocation only covers 997,761 households until December of this year. Ibon said that this leaves behind over a million households from the government’s supposed two million targeted beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, farmers continue to live with what they have despite earning little to no profit from farming.
For Ramirez, who only reached Grade 6 in school, farming has been his main source of livelihood for decades. “What else can we do? We didn’t finish school, so we just endure whatever challenges come our way,” he said.
Reyes, on the other hand, feels he has no other option but to keep farming, as leaving the land unused would only let weeds grow and lead to even higher costs later on.
“We have to keep farming even if the price is low and we lose money,” Reyes said.
For KMP, the three years of Marcos Jr is a scam. Ramos said, “While the government keeps importing rice and other food, our local farmers continue to suffer losses. The President’s promises to lower rice prices and uplift farmers have proven to be a complete failure.”
“The Marcos Jr. administration is clinging to a failed and anti-farmer policy of rice importation. It is time to repeal the Rice Liberalization Law, break up the rice trading monopoly, and implement a genuine program for food self-sufficiency,” Ramos added. (With reports from Anne Marxze D. Umil) (RVO)
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