REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES / KAS
Quezon City f gine, @ A
SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
Second Regular Session
’ 7083
House Bill No.

Introduced by MAGDALO Party-List Representative
HON. GARY C. ALEJANO

EXPLANATORY NOTE

‘The Constitution mandates that the State shall “promote industrialization and full employment
based on sound agricultural development and agrarian reform.” A transformed agricultural sector
becomes a reliable market for the consumer goods and farm implements produced by the
industrial sector. Through the multiplier process, an initial impulse of agricultural activity
spreads to other sectors of the economy.

Agricultural development, however, can be an end in itself. The income of the farmer must be
raised to allow him to meet his basic needs and to enhance his self-esteem.

For the palay farmer’s income to increase, his value added in rice production must rise. Over the
decades the farmer's contribution to rice production has been confined to tilling the land and
harvesting the crop, thus, limiting his income to a fraction of the value of the palay harvested.

Yet, as the pernicious practice of rice cartels indicates, a bigger income is earned from the time
the harvested palay leaves the farm to the time milled rice reaches the market.

This bill proposes that the farmer gets the lion’s share in this off-farm income. Hence, the
proposal to have the farmer own post-harvest facilities like warehouses, rice mills and transport
facilities to be provided by the government and acquired by farmers’ cooperatives at cost to be
amortized for a period of time. The farmers’ control and ownership of the storage, milling and
transport facilities in rice production will markedly increase his income.

Corollarily, the bill encourages the formation and development of farmers’ cooperatives which
will own and manage the post-harvest facilities.

In the long term, the bill will end the palay and rice price subsidies, thus, giving budgetary relief
to the government.

The bottom line is to make rice, rather than palay, the end-product of the farmers to assure their
economic stability.

Hence, the enactment of this bill is earnestly requested.

Representative
Magdalo Para sa Pilipino Party-List


REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
Second Regular Session

7089

House Bill

io.

Introduced by MAGDALO Party-List Representative _
HON. GARY C. ALEJANO

AN ACT
PROVIDING POST-HARVEST FACILITIES TO RICE FARMERS

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress
assembled:

SECTION 1. Title. — This Act shall be known as the “Post-Harvest Facilities Support

Act of 2018"

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. ~ It is the policy of the State to promote agricultural and
rural development. Specifically, the State aims to raise farm incomes to a level high enough to
allow the farmers to satisfy their material needs and enhance their self-esteem. It is also the
policy of the State to encourage and strengthen non-government organizations, such as farmers

organizations and cooperatives.

SEC. 3. Post-Harvest Facilities. — The Department of Public Works and Highways
(DPWH), in consultation with the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Agrarian
Reform (DAR), and farmers cooperatives shall construct warehouses and rice mills in every rice-
producing municipality and city in the Philippines: Provided, That in the initial phase of the
program, every district with at least one rice-producing municipality shall be the beneficiary of at

least one warehouse and rice mill.

SEC. 4. Additionally, the Department of Trade and Industry, in consultation with the

Department of Agriculture, the Department of Agrarian Reform, and farmers cooperatives, shall


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provide the equipment and machinery required to operate these warehouses and rice mills as well

as the necessary transport facilities.

SEC. 5. Acquisition by Farmers Cooperatives. — The warehouses and rice mills,
including the equipment and machinery required to operate them, shall be sold at cost to

accredited farmers cooperatives which will be given 25 years to amortize the facilities.

SEC. 6. Funding. ~ The amount of One Billion Pesos (P1-B) is initially appropriated for
the program. In subsequent years, funding for the program shall be incorporated in the General
Appropriations Act, to come from, among others, the savings realized from the phasing out of
the palay and rice subsidies, and the accumulated amortizations of farmers cooperatives for the

facilities.

SEC. 7. Rules and Regulations. — Within thirty (30) days from the effectivity of this
Act, the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Department of Agriculture, the
Department of Agrarian Reform and the Department of Trade and Industry shall jointly

promulgate the implementing rules and regulations.
SEC. 8. Separability Clause. — If any provision in this Act or the application thereof is
held invalid or unconstitutional, the validity of other provisions not affected thereby, shall be in

full force and effect.

SEC. 9. Repealing Clause. — All laws, decrees, orders, proclamations, rules and
regulations, and other issuances, inconsistent herewith, are hereby repealed or modified

accordingly

SEC. 10. Effectivity. — This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved,