REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City
EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House Bill No. _ 924

Introduced by MAGDALO Party-List Representative
HON. MANUEL DG. CABOCHAN IIL

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 ineome,

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.

\CHAN IIL

Representai
Magdalo Para sa Pilipino Party-List


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REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House Bill No, __ 924

Introduced by MAGDALO Party-List Representative
HON. MANUEL DG. CABOCHAN IIL

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”.

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 poliey 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.


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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 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,