Rice Tarrification
NEDA – implement rules and regulations (draft IRR)
Terms to Remember:
1. Tariffs – taxes on import goods (expensive)
2. Quantitative Restrictions
Limit to amount of good to be
imported
Imposed on rice (protection for
farmers)
Not beneficial to consumers & farmer
3. Minimum Access Volume
Quantity of specific good, imported
with a lower tariff
Changes:
1. Abolishes quantitative restrictions (steady supple
of rice)
2. Lower rice prices and inflation rate
Low Prices: (how?)
1. can go lower than NFA’s recent selling price
2. low inflation rates (0.5-0.7 percentage
points)
NFA – buffer stocking/storing rice for clamities and
emergencies
buy rice exclusively from farmers
bid out of market distribution
Farmers – better tools & seeds (productivity
RCEF=P10B+ than regular budget of DA
Draft IRR=efficient monitoring system
(fund benefits)
Government=P5B; special allotment
release order
Traders – need to learn futures trading
Traders won’t import (high domestic
supply)
Supply Issues: (addressed)
1. President: lower the applied tariff rate
(forecasted shortage; limited time)
2. 3-year import average = 125%
Agriculture: (long-term plan)
1. Formulation of Rice Industry Roadmap;
collab with relevant agencies with due
consultation with stakeholders
2. Ensure activities and investments by DA,
NEDA, DOBM, DOF, etc.
Measles Crisis
Recently:
1. Early February : Measles outbreak
Increased 122% compared to 2017
2. 4000+ cases and 70 deaths
3. Parents: unwillingness to immunize babies
4. Health and government authorities:
pleading parents to vaccinate children
Agencies:
 Philippine Pediatric Society
 Philippine Foundation for Vaccination
 UNICEF
 Department of Health
Past Records on Measles:
1. 2017 – 547%; 5000+ measles cases
2. 2005 – almost no deaths from measles
Struggles of Doctors:
1. Vaccinate communities
2. Newfound fear of immunization
Dengvaxia Incident 2017:
Sanofi Pasteur
Administered to 8000 public school
students
39 deaths of children
Who was Blame?
1. Health professionals – gov’t linked a
fraction to the vaccines (innocent)
“child killers”
Insulted, shunned out, lambasted
2. Media – adding fuel to fear
3 major newspapers (politics of the
scare)
Vaccine Hesitancy – resistance to immunization in
the West
Global Wave Measles Outbreak – 6.7M cases (2017)
Mass Immunization Campaign (solution)
Measles “fast lines” in gov’t hospitals
Armed forces to conflict/remote areas
Goal - massive advocacy campaign
Led by well-known personalities
Counter the mistrust of vaccines
(urban) and lack of awareness (rural)
Prompt more parents to inquire
vaccinations