THE Cebu City Council has deferred, for another week, the approval of a resolution authorizing Mayor Nestor Archival to sign an agreement with the National Government for the selling of the administration’s P20-per-kilo subsidized rice.
The resolution, authorizing Archival to sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Food Terminal Inc. (FTI), was endorsed by Councilor Pastor “Jun” Alcover Jr. during the council’s session on Tuesday, August 12, 2025.
However, some Council members raised questions about the implementation and legality of the agreement, prompting Alcover to defer it until the next session.
In a letter to the City Legal Office (CLO), Archival certified the review of the MOA as urgent. If passed, signed and implemented, the measure would allow the City Government to sell subsidized rice to selected beneficiaries.
The collaboration aims to implement President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s flagship Kadiwa ng Pangulo program alongside the P20-per-kilo rice initiative in the city.
During deliberations, Councilor Sisinio Andales asked whether the MOA had been endorsed and reviewed by the CLO before the resolution’s approval.
Alcover replied that a legal opinion dated August 5 from CLO lawyer Bernard Inocentes Garcia, and approved by CLO chief Briccio Joseph Boholst, was attached to the resolution.
He said the CLO found no legal impediments to the MOA. However, before the mayor can sign the agreement, the City Council must first approve a resolution authorizing it.
The CLO also said any purchase order for the subsidized rice from FTI must be referred to the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC)–Goods and Services to comply with procurement laws.
“In short, unahon sa nato ang SP resolution; after this, kay i-execute na ni, ug ang paghimo sa purchase order kay i-adto na sa Bids and Awards Committee,” Alcover said during the session.
(In short, we must first approve the SP resolution; after this, it will be executed, and the making of the purchase order will be referred to the Bids and Awards Committee.)
However, Andales said the BAC must first approve the purchase order before the agreement can be implemented.
Councilor Alvin Arcilla, meanwhile, asked if the purchase order had already been completed.
The discussion was put on recess while Alcover reviewed Arcilla’s query. When the session resumed, Alcover endorsed the deferment of the resolution’s approval until next week.
Councilor Francis Esparis suggested that FTI must produce a board resolution authorizing its president to sign the contract on its behalf before the MOA is signed, in compliance with the CLO’s opinion.
Proposed agreement
Under the proposed agreement, FTI, a government-owned and controlled corporation under the Department of Agriculture, will supply well-milled rice sourced from the National Food Authority (NFA) to Cebu City.
FTI will handle the procurement and delivery of rice stocks to designated locations in the city. The City Government, through its departments and agencies, will oversee distribution, including the identification of qualified beneficiaries.
The National Government, through the FTI, will subsidize the NFA rice bought at P33 per kilo and sold at P20 per kilo. Both the local and national governments will shoulder P6.50 each for every kilo sold.
Aside from the P20-per-kilo rice, the FTI offered to supply rice under the FTI-25 and Rice for All-25 programs, which would be sold to the City Government at P35 per kilo.
The P20-per-kilo rice program was launched in several Visayas provinces, including Cebu, last May 1. It is considered a fulfillment of Marcos’s 2022 campaign promise.
Cebu Province, under then governor Gwendolyn Garcia, was the first LGU to implement the program in 2023, but inconsistent supply hindered its continuation. Garcia reintroduced the program to Marcos during his visit to Cebu in April 2025. (EHP)