By Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos
MANILA – The goal to bring down the price of rice to PHP20 per kilogram is a promise that is now being fulfilled, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said on Wednesday.
This, after Department of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. announced that rice will be sold at PHP20 per kilo in Visayas.
“[Twenty] pesos kada kilo na bigas. Iyan ang pangako—at ngayon, sinisimulan na natin itong maisakatuparan sa Visayas region (Twenty pesos per kilo of rice. That’s the promise —and now, we’re starting to make it happen in the Visayas region),” Marcos said in a Facebook post.
The pilot launch of the sale of PHP20 per kilo in Visayas was a result of Marcos’ closed-door meeting with 12 governors in the region.
Under the program, indigent Filipinos are eligible to buy the PHP20-per-kilo rice.
Tiu Laurel said each family will be allowed a 10-kg. purchase per week or a total of 40 kg. every month.
The rice will also be sold for PHP20 per kilo nationwide once challenges in logistics are addressed, Tiu Laurel said.
Tiu Laurel attributed the delivered promise of reducing the price of rice to PHP20/kg. to the downward trend of rice prices in the global market.
To date, the NFA has around 358,000 metric tons (MT) of rice stocks, which will last for over nine days, more than halfway to its target national rice buffer stock of 15 days. (PNA)
