SOME 60 million Filipinos in 15 million households are expected to benefit from the government’s Benteng Bigas Meron Na (BBM Na!) program with the launch of its Masterlist Registry System, the Department of Agriculture (DA) announced on Monday.
The system was developed by the DA-Information and Communications Technology Service (DA-ICTS) in time for the November Rice Awareness Month.
The program, which offers rice at P20 per kilogram to qualified beneficiaries, was President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s campaign promise in the 2022 elections.
“This project is a clear example of how the DA can leverage technology to modernize Philippine agriculture and food security,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said of the subsidized rice program’s registry system.
List of beneficiaries
From the initial group of beneficiaries composed of indigents, solo parents, senior citizens, and persons with disabilities, the list now includes minimum wage earners, farmers, farm workers, and fisherfolk, tricycle and jeepney drivers, recipients of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Walang Gutom Program, and Indigenous peoples.
The list will soon cover teachers, security guards, bus drivers, and delivery riders, Tiu Laurel said.
Qualified beneficiaries are asked to go to any Kadiwa store or other designated P20/kg rice outlets and present a valid identification card for registration into the system. Upon information verification, beneficiaries will be given a QR code which they will present to avail of the P20/kg rice.
The QR code will also record the quantity of allowed purchases based on the beneficiaries’ monthly allocation.
At the moment, the registry system is available at the Agribusiness Development Center near the DA office on Elliptical Road, Quezon City; the Bureau of Animal Industry on Visayas Avenue, Quezon City; the Bureau of Plant Industry in Malate; and the Kadiwa ng Pangulo Center in Navotas.
It is also open at warehouses of the National Food Authority (NFA) in Ilocos, Cagayan Valley region, and Central Luzon.
By December, online registration may also be done on the eGov portal, DA website, and DA Facebook page, among others platforms.
Online registration takes only two to three minutes.
Beneficiaries have until February 2026 to register.
The P20/kg rice program will cover all of the country’s 82 provinces this week, Tiu Laurel said, adding the DA hopes to reach all municipalities by opening five to six outlets per week.
The program likewise enables the NFA to sell rice from the palay (unhusked rice) it buys from farmers.
To sustain the program till 2026, Tiu Laurel said the DA needs P23 billion — of which P9 billion from the NFA will be allotted to, plus the proposed P10 billion funding for the Rice-for-All program, and P4 billion in contingency funds.
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