BY MARIO B. CASAYURAN
The Senate, through a resolution filed by Sen. Cynthia A. Villar, proposed that the 2021 national budget include a special provision that cash assistance should be given to small farmers hit by the three typhoons that recently raked the Philippines.
Estimated damage to the agriculture sector is P10 billion and excess revenues from the Bureau of Customs earmarked for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund should be given to farmers owning one hectare and below, Villar said.
The only qualification is that the farmer beneficiaries should be registered in the Registry System for Basic Sector in Agriculture (RSBSA) to compensate for the loss of farm income and help them start anew, she said.
Villar, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, made the move during last Friday’s deliberation on the proposed 2021 budget of the Department of Agriculture and its support agencies.
Proposed amendments to budgets of departments, agencies, and offices in the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary departments and constitutional offices will be deliberated Tuesday before the Senate’s version of the 2021 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) is approved on second and third hearing.
To date, based on initial estimates of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the agricultural damage from typhoons “Quinta,” “Rolly,” and “Ulysses” have reached P10 billion and even more and it would take time and a huge infusion of capital to help farmers recover from the onslaught of these calamities.
The Bureau of Customs reported that there is an approximately P5 billion tariff collection in excess of the P10 billion collected in 2019 (P2.3 billion) and in 2020 (P3 billion as of Sept. 30, 2020) under RA 11203, or the Rice Tariffication Law.
The law provided that Congress can allocate this excess collection to the DA to help rice farmers including cash assistance.
