THE Cebu City Government will join the P20-per-kilo subsidized rice program of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
The announcement was made by Mayor Nestor Archival on Wednesday, July 30, 2025, as he endorsed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Department of Agriculture’s Food Terminal Inc. (DA-FTI) to the City Council for its review and approval.
Under the proposed partnership, the city and the national governments would each pay a P6.50 subsidy for every kilo of rice that will be sold to selected beneficiaries for P20.
“I am very much interested to join the program. That’s why I immediately sent this to the City Council for review last week. I believe that the matter is now in the hands of the committee on agriculture and the committee on budget,” Archival said in an interview.
He said the review will include finding the budget that can be used to cover the City’s counterpart fund to purchase the rice.
Under Marcos’ rice program, the National Government, through DA-FTI, shares the cost of covering the subsidy for well-milled rice from the National Food Authority (NFA).
The NFA rice, priced at P33 per kilo, will be sold for only P20 per kilo to selected beneficiaries with government shouldering the remaining amount as subsidy.
“I welcome this because it is everybody’s concern. You eat, I eat rice. This is a program that will give people, especially the poor, cheap rice,” said Archival in a mix of Cebuano and English.
Memorandum of agreement
Under the proposed MOA, the DA-FTI will deliver sacks of well-milled rice from the DA’s warehouses to the City’s storage area based upon a purchase order from City Hall.
If there are quality issues or defects found in the supplied rice, the local government unit (LGU) has the option to return the order to the DA-FTI within three days.
The LGU will have 15 days from the stocks’ withdrawal to pay for the rice. Late payment will accrue a five percent penalty per month.
As stipulated in the program’s guidelines, the LGU will provide a list of qualified beneficiaries. It will be the LGU that will distribute and sell the subsidized rice.
Aside from the P20-per-kilo subsidized rice, the DA-FTI also offered to supply the LGU with FTI-25 and RFA (Rice for All program)-25 at P35-per-kilo.
The subsidized P20-per-kilo rice program was launched in several Visayas provinces last May 1, where it was considered a fulfillment of Marcos’ 2022 campaign promise.
Meanwhile, Archival also announced a separate Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) subsidized rice program that will launch on Thursday, July 31.
The DSWD rice program under ‘Kadiwa ng Pangulo,’ integrated into Marcos’ Walang Gutom 2027 Food Stamp Program, will be launched in Plaza Sugbo in front of the Cebu City Hall.
Archival clarified that aside from the 56 beneficiaries who will participate in the launching, the subsidized rice will be made available to other qualified beneficiaries through the DSWD. / EHP