President Rodrigo Duterte has certified as urgent the passage of rice tariffication bill pending in Congress.

In his separate letters to Senate President Vicente Sotto III and House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on October 10, Duterte sought for the immediate passage of the bill "to address the urgent need to improve availability of rice in the country, prevent artificial rice shortages, reduce the prices of rice in the market, and curtail the prevalence of corruption and cartel domination in the rice industry."

The House has approved the bill replacing the qualitative import restrictions on rice with tariffs, lifting the quantitative export restrictions on rice, and creating the rice competitiveness enhancement fund.

The bill, on the other hand, is still on first reading at the Senate. Celerina Monte/DMS