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MANILA - Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia on Wednesday said he favored tariffs instead of quantitative restrictions or import quotas on rice.

The government can use tariff revenues to help farmers increase their productivity, Pernia told ANC's Headstart. The quotas, he added, were partly to blame for high rice prices.

"With the liberalization using tariffs, that will improve the performance of our rice sector and the proceeds from the tariffication would go into improving the productivity of agriculture," he said.

Lawmakers should prioritize crafting a law to convert the quotas into tariffs because the Philippines is past its deadline for setting it aside, said Pernia.

The Philippines should have lifted its quantitative restriction on rice by June 30 last year as part of its commitments to the World Trade Organization.

In May, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order 23, which extended for three more years the country's QR for rice, as it is believed to benefit local farmers.

The Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, led by Sen. Cynthia Villar, on Tuesday started hearings on a law that would impose duties on rice imports. -- with a report from Abner Mercado, ABS-CBN News