THE House of Representatives on Wednesday endorsed for President Duterte’s signature the rice tariffication bill and the coco levy trust fund bill after it ratified the bicameral committee reports on the two measures.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte Jr. said the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) under the rice tariffication bill will help boost farm productivity and partly address the tight rural credit crunch that has today ballooned to P367 billion.
Villafuerte noted that only 10 percent of its P10-billion allocation, or P1 billion, would be set aside for credit to farmers and cooperatives. But, he said, this would in some way help farmers gain access to lending facilities that were denied them by the banking sector despite a law requiring banks to allot a specific portion of their credit facilities to the agriculture sector.
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