Bacolod City Administrator Pacifico Maghari said the city government is hopeful that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will identify more rice retailers in various public markets to avail the P15,000 cash grants from the national government for the implementation of the rice price ceilings.

Maghari said as of Monday, September 18, only one rice retailer from Burgos Public Market availed of the P15,000 cash grants.

He said the personnel of DTI are still validating the rice retailers in the city, and hopefully, there will be more beneficiaries in the next batch of distribution.

On September 13, DTI started the release of the cash grants in Bacolod City along with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

DTI provincial director Lynna Joy Cardinal earlier said that as of September 11, DTI has a total of 1,241 registered rice retailers in the province.

DTI inspectors were deployed in various areas of the province, including Bacolod City, for the profiling of rice retailers who could avail of cash assistance from the national government.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier signed Executive Order No. 39, which imposes a price ceiling of P41 per kilogram for regular milled rice and P45 per kilogram for well-milled rice, on September 5.

The City Government of Bacolod also facilitated the rice supply to the three major public markets in the city to sell it at P45 per kilogram in compliance with the EO.

Maghari said they already asked the Permits and Licensing Division to provide a list of rice retailers to the DTI so they could avail of the cash assistance.*