August 20, 2025
MANILA – The Department of Agriculture’s (DA) plan to include fisherfolk among those who can buy rice at P20 per kilo is nothing but a “small and insufficient consolation,” a fisherfolk group said Tuesday.
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The DA recently announced that starting August 29, more than 2.8 million registered fisherfolk will be added to the list of government beneficiaries eligible to buy rice at P20 per kilo.
But for the group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), the move was merely a “tokenistic” gesture that does little to address the country’s rice production crisis.
“Similar to the farmers’ position, the offer of P20-per-kilo rice for fisherfolk is inadequate and merely a small consolation,” Pamalakaya National Chairperson Fernando Hicap said in Filipino in an issued statement.
“This does not concretely address the root of the production crisis, which is also behind the high price of rice in the marke,” he added.
Hicap stressed that to meaningfully lower rice prices, the government must take “concrete actions” such as strengthening the National Food Authority, dismantling private traders and cartels, and providing substantial support for rice farmers’ production.
READ: Pamalakaya: Fund fisherfolk, not hold fishing contest in Subic Bay
The fisherfolk group also backed calls from various farmers’ organizations for the immediate repeal of Republic Act No. 11203, or the Rice Liberalization Law, which they said has “led to depressed farm-gate prices, unregulated rice importation, and further impoverishment of our rice farmers.”