By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz, Reporter
HOUSE Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez announced on Tuesday that the government is set to distribute rice discount vouchers next year to benefit 7 million Filipino families or approximately 28 million citizens nationwide.
In a statement, Mr. Romualdez highlighted the program’s goal of making affordable and good-quality rice accessible to more families.
“This is a recalibration of our Cash and Rice Distribution (CARD) Program, and we made it more sustainable by transforming it into a rice discount voucher program so that more families can enjoy buying affordable rice,” he said.
The initiative, known as Bagong Pilipinas Community Assistance and Rice Discount (CARD), will be implemented under the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) program under next year’s national budget.
Once operationalized, the program is expected to allow each family to buy 25 kilograms of affordable and good quality rice monthly, the Speaker said.
He stressed that the program is a response to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s call to bring down rice prices for disadvantaged Filipino families.
At present, the price of local regular milled rice stands at P45.33 per kilo, while well-milled rice is at P50.73 per kilo, according to the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) price watch.
In October, the DA said that it does not expect a surge in rice prices during the holiday season.
The Philippine Rice Industry Stakeholders Movement expects that up to 500,000 metric tons of rice expected to arrive in the Philippines by March next year should lower rice prices.
The House of Representatives and the Senate agreed to fund the program during the Bicameral Committee conference hearings on the P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024.
The additional AICS funds will cover necessary budget allocations for the rice discount vouchers, addressing the immediate financial concerns of low-income families.
Mr. Romualdez also mentioned the program’s use of technology for efficient voucher distribution, tracking, and validation to prevent misuse.
“This program is to show all Filipinos that Congress and the administration of President Marcos Jr. are doing everything to bring down the price of rice for a more significant number of Filipino families,” he said partly in Filipino.