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THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has launched a system to track the beneficiaries and enhance oversight of its P20 rice program.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said beneficiaries of the cheaper rice program should register, where a QR code would be generated and must be shown to outlets before the purchase of the P20 per kilo rice.

He noted, however, that the DA is targeting to implement the stringent use of the masterlist registry system in March 2026 to give an elbow room for Filipinos to register. 

“Since we’ve only launched this today, we’ll give the general public three months to register until end-February. By March, they won’t get to buy [P20 rice] without a QR code. I think that’s enough time,” Tiu Laurel told reporters in a news conference on Monday.

He explained that the measure would also curb repeat buyers, as the program only allows up to 30 kilos per beneficiary on a monthly basis.

“We’ve been in a trial phase for almost six months, and there are a lot of people who make multiple purchases,” he said. 

“So, this would control things since we don’t have an unlimited budget and rice supply. We just want to provide fair treatment for all beneficiaries.”

For 2026, Tiu Laurel noted that the agency is looking at roughly a P23-billion budget to sustain the government’s subsidized rice program.

Broken down, he explained that a chunk of the budget would come from its share in the proposed 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA), particularly P9 billion from the National Food Authority (NFA), and P10 billion for the Rice-for-All program. The remaining contingency fund of around P4 billion would make up the total funding.

Currently, eligible participants can register in four sites around Metro Manila and in NFA warehouses nationwide.

Registered P20 beneficiaries can use the P20 Benefinder (https://p20.da.gov.ph/) to generate their QR codes and present them before purchasing rice at the P20 outlets. 

The P20 Benefinder is another module of the P20 Registry System that verifies target beneficiaries.

Since the P20 rice program’s launch in May, the government has expanded its coverage beyond the initial scope, which covered senior citizens, solo parents, persons with disabilities, indigents, and indigenous people.

P20 beneficiaries now include minimum wage earners, rice farmers and fisherfolk, tricycle and jeepney drivers, and beneficiaries of the Walang Gutom program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“With this online system, we can now step up the expansion of the P20 rice program to include other sectors such as teachers, security guards, and other transport sector workers like bus drivers and delivery riders,” Tiu Laurel said.

Source : businessmirror