Agriculture Assistant Secretary and DA spokesperson Arnel de Mesa —Photograph: official Fb web page of the Division of Agriculture Regional Discipline Workplace Calabarzon
MANILA, Philippines — The Workplace of the Solicitor Normal (OSG) requested the Supreme Courtroom to dismiss the petition of farmer teams looking for a brief restraining order (TRO) towards Government Order (EO) 62, arguing that it might trigger “vital, if not irreparable, damage” to Filipino customers.
In a 62-page remark dated July 29, the OSG cited Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa, who beforehand stated {that a} TRO on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s order decreasing tariffs from 35 % to fifteen % would possibly trigger “hesitation and delay” in incoming rice imports, probably resulting in a scarcity.
READ: Marcos formalizes rice tariff lower through EO 62
“It behooves this Honorable Courtroom to chorus from issuing a TRO or another type of injunction, not solely as a result of petitioners don’t stand to endure any irreparable damage, but additionally as a result of the nation would possibly endure that very same damage ought to there be inadequate meals provide at this important time,” the OSG argued.
On July 4, farmer and agriculture teams together with Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura Inc., Federation of Free Farmers Inc., and United Broiler Raisers Affiliation Inc. filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition earlier than the Supreme Courtroom, looking for to cease the federal government from implementing EO 62.
Named respondents within the case are Marcos, Government Secretary Lucas Bersamin, Secretary Arsenio Balisacan of the Nationwide Financial and Growth Authority and Tariff Fee Chair Marilou Mendoza.
Of their 27-page petition, the teams requested the excessive tribunal to declare EO 62 as null, void and unconstitutional, saying that it was “unexpectedly issued” and violated the requirement of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act to conduct an investigation and public hearings on the matter.
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