By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff Reporter
Senator Ma.
Imelda Josefa “Imee” R. Marcos assured rice farmers of P6.9 billion in additional
aid by this month, in the form of palay purchases or cash, using undisbursed
funds from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Ms. Marcos allayed worries that a memorandum of agreement
among the DSWD, Department of Agriculture and National Food Authority to
purchase palay from local farmers “was held in abeyance” following a Supreme Court
decision in October preventing budget allocations for items not specified in
the national budget through a mere resolution in Congress.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives earlier
approved joint resolutions to convert cash aid from the DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang
Pilipino Program (4Ps) into rice, to be bought from local farmers unable to
compete with cheap rice imports.
However, the high court ruling in the case of Ang Nars
party list vs. the Executive Secretary et al. would require that the law
enacting this year’s national budget, the 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA),
be amended before the relief measure could be implemented.
“The Senate hopes to amend the 4Ps allocations in the GAA
by December, before the rice harvest season ends and unspent budget revert to
the general fund,” Ms. Marcos said.
“As we speak, both Houses are rushing a bill, in compliance
with the new Supreme Court ruling to amend GAA 2019, I am confident it will pass
in time,” she added.
The P6.9-billion aid from the DSWD budget answers
President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s call on lawmakers to help local rice farmers
adjust to the rice tariffication law during the harvest season and will augment
the P5,000 cash assistance promised by the Department of Agriculture before
Christmas, Marcos added.
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