Quinones leads an association of about 300 local rice farmers and said some had now become builders, street sweepers and waste pickers just so they could eat or pay off debts. Impact on farmersThe Rice Tariffication Law was supposed to help Filipino farmers by channeling import taxes into a Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) worth 10 billion pesos a year. In Nueva Ecija, once the nation’s rice basket, many farmers went into bankruptcy as prices for rice tanked to new lows. In comparison, Thailand last year approved 55 billion baht ($1.60 billion) of support for its rice farmers: seven times the amount pledged to their Filipino counterparts. Estavillo said about 100,000 farmers had signed a petition urging the government to scrap the law, strengthen rice production and help farmers earn a decent income.