The coverage of the Marcos administration’s P20 per kilo rice initiative—currently accessible to members of vulnerable sectors—will include middle-class families by 2026, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said Tuesday.
The P20 per kilo rice is currently being sold at KADIWA ng Pangulo outlets across the country, but only members of vulnerable sectors—including indigents, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and solo parents—are eligible to buy the subsidized National Food Authority (NFA) rice.
The rice is sourced from the stocks of the NFA, which are procured directly from local farmers. The government subsidizes the program through the Food Terminal Inc.
“Our plan is… we will sell the P20 [per kilo] rice to 15 million households… or about 60 million Filipinos. These are middle-income families and below,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said at the Post-State of the Nation Address (SONA) forum in San Juan City.
The DA will set a monthly cap of 10 kilos that middle-class households can purchase.
“This can be increased further as we go along,” Tiu Laurel said.
Vulnerable sectors have a higher limit of 30 kilos a month.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in his fourth SONA, said that the P20 rice program is expanding nationwide, adding that his campaign promise has already been achieved.
The Agriculture chief said the DA is setting aside P18 billion next year for the P20 per kilo rice initiative.
Of the amount, Tiu Laurel said about P8?billion was already secured through existing rice stocks managed by the NFA, while the remaining P10?billion is earmarked for palay procurement from local farmers.
“But in the future, the way to make it sustainable is we plan to buy rice from the farmers with the additional funds,” he said.
The budget for the P20 per kilo rice program is separate from the P9 billion palay procurement budget of the NFA for 2026 under the soon-to-be filed proposed General Appropriations Act for next year.
He added that the DA plans to sell 80% of the rice that is purchased from local farmers at a retail price of P42 per kilo, with the proceeds going toward funding the P20 rice per kilo scheme.
To do this, the DA chief said the agency is pushing for the amendment of the Rice Tariffication Law to bring back the powers and market intervention functions of the NFA ''so we can buy rice as we sell rice; unlike now, it’s just for buffer stocking.”
House Speaker Martin Romualdez has filed House Bill No.?1, or the proposed RICE Act, which seeks to empower the DA and the NFA to better manage the rice industry as well as authorize the DA to set a minimum floor price for palay to safeguard farmers’ incomes. —VBL, GMA Integrated News
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