Photo Release

Villar defends rice tarffication bill: Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture and Food and principal sponsor and author of Senate Bill 1998, which replaces the quantitative import restriction on rice with tariffs, discusses with Sen. Francis Pangilinan how the rice tariffication bill would help reduce the price of rice in the market. Villar also gave the assurance that local farmers will be protected in a liberalized regime because the bill will provide for a P10 billion Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund that will bankroll mechanization programs and will ensure farmers' access to inbred seeds that will improve their productivity from 4 metric tons to 6 metric tons per hectare.