Republic of the Philippines
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Philippine Center for Postharvest
Development and Mechanization
CLSU Compound, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija

NEWS STORIES

Sen. Villar, top PHilMech officials meet, yields positive results
by Jett Molech G. Subaba (April 3, 2022)
Senator Cynthia A. Villar, chair of the Senate Committee on Food and Agriculture, and her Chief of Staff, Atty. Rhaegge Tamaña, met recently with newly-appointed Director IV of the Philippine Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech), Dr. Dionisio G. Alvindia, and Deputy Director Ronaldo S.R. Reyes. This meeting yielded positive results.

Held at the Villar Sipag Farm School in Las Pinas on March 30, 2022, the Senator emphasized during the meeting that her office is supportive of PHilMech in its implementation of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF)-Mechanization Program. She advised the two PHilMech officials to closely coordinate with her office about the program.

Villar is the main author of Republic Act 11203, or the Rice Tariffication Law which liberalized rice trade and allocated tariffs collected from rice imports for various programs to benefit the Philippine rice industry. One of the program components is the RCEF-Mechanization with an allocation of Php5 billion per year from 2019 to 2024.

"We are very grateful that Senator Cynthia Villar is supportive of the efforts of PHilMech in the implementation of the RCEF-Mechanization program that has reached its midpoint now, and is subject to review by the Senate Committee on Food and Agriculture", Dr. Alvindia said.

During the close to three-hour meeting, Villar said that the tariffs collected from rice imports as stipulated by RA 11203 must be used for the benefit of rice farmers.

With this perspective, Dr. Alvindia assured Villar of PHilMech's faithful adherence to the ideals and vision of the RCEF-Mechanization Program and to the requisite norms of honesty and integrity in the conduct of its transactions under the program.

So far, 682,502 farmers nationwide have become recipients of the RCEF-Mechanization Program as of December 2021. Also, of the 19,542 units of machinery acquired under the program, some 16,167 have already been distributed to farmer-beneficiaries.