THE Department of Agriculture (DA) will expand the P20 per kilogram (kg) rice initiative, or the Benteng Bigas Meron Na! (BBM Na!) program, to fisherfolk by the end of the month.
They will be allowed to purchase 10 kilograms per month with the program to be initially rolled out at fish ports owned by the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority.
Weekly provincial rollouts will follow in areas with active National Food Authority depots until the end of 2025.
This will benefit around 2.9 million fisherfolk, the DA said.
Originally limited to senior citizens, persons with disabilities, solo parents and members of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, the program has since been expanded to include minimum wage earners, beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Walang Gutom program, and farmers and farmworkers in the DA’s Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture.
The program currently serves almost 400,000 families across the country.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the P20 program was the “biggest challenge” as the DA aims to reach 15 million households or around 60 million individuals by 2026.
The secretary added that they would need the “full support” of the entire agency in order to scale up the program.
“We have the stocks. We have the budget. What we need now is urgency and unity,” Tiu Laurel said, referencing a P10-billion increase in funding for the rice program under the proposed 2026 national budget.
Despite criticism from some groups, he claimed the initiative had received overwhelming public support.
“Some called it insulting,” he said. “But on the ground, demand [has] told a different story.”
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered the DA to sustain the P20/kg rice program until the end of his term in 2028.
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