RTL, a bad law, spawns crooks and scammers

The Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) is a very bad law. It scrapped the last line of defense small rice farmers had against massive rice dumping — the QR, or quantitative restriction — and replaced that with a two-tier tariff, one for rice from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) region and a higher one for imports out of the region. The tariff collections, this is the law’s consuelo de bobo, are to go into an amelioration program for the small rice farmers.

The law made it clear that importing rice would be easier than putting up a neighborhood sari-sari store. With the absence of rules and with the greed that is expected of the rice importing class, the worst did really happen. In the 10 months of 2019 alone, around 3 million metric tons of rice was imported, pushing palay prices into the P8- to P10-per-kilo level. The RTL, as expected, failed to put in a proviso against greed and reckless importation.