CEBU Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has assured that the province-wide, simultaneous selling of P20-per-kilo subsidized rice will push through on Thursday, May 1, 2025.
In a press conference on Wednesday, April 30, Garcia said Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. will lead the launch of the program as part of the pilot implementation of the P20-per-kilo subsidized rice program of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the Visayas region.
Garcia said that aside from launching the program, there will be a Kadiwa Center in the quadrangle of the Provincial Capitol to allow local farmers to display and sell their produce.
The activity will be in collaboration with the Department of Labor and Employment’s (Dole) Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (Tupad) program to help local farmers.
Garcia said Tupad will shoulder the local farmers’ expenses in bringing their produce to the Kadiwa Center at the Capitol grounds.
An LED wall set up at the Capitol will show the different towns and component cities that will participate in the launch of the province-wide, simultaneous selling of subsidized rice.
“Mind you, the selling of the rice will be done by the (Agriculture) Secretary himself and not us and not in the presence of the candidates,” said Garcia.
This will be the same policy for the different towns and cities, where the selling of the subsidized rice will be led by each LGU’s respective agriculturists.
Selected beneficiaries and identified recipients have to use Capitol-issued QR-coded cards in purchasing subsidized rice at a maximum of 10 kilos per week to safeguard against potential hoarders.
To secure a QR-coded card, beneficiaries were directed to present a National Identification (ID) card or any valid ID to the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office for processing.
The subsidized rice will be sold through the Capitol’s Sugbo Merkadong Barato (SMB) program.
Head start
Earlier, on Friday, April 25, Garcia announced that Cebu LGUs would start selling the subsidized rice on Monday, April 28.
In a meeting at the Capitol, she urged mayors to start withdrawing the allocated sacks of rice from the Capitol’s warehouse for distribution to the SMB program.
Around 11,000 sacks of NFA rice, priced at P20.00 per kilo, are currently stored at the National Food Authority’s warehouse and are ready for distribution to various LGUs across Cebu.
On April 23, the Department of Agriculture announced the pilot implementation of the subsidized rice program called “P20” for the Visayas region, after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. held a closed-door meeting with Visayas governors on the same day at the Cebu Provincial Capitol.
According to Laurel, the program’s nationwide implementation will follow in the coming months.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has granted the DA’s request for exemption from the 10-day poll spending ban for its subsidized rice project.
The exemption comes with several conditions: the implementation must not influence the May 12, 2025, National and Local Elections; distribution of financial aid programs such as the ‘ayuda’, TUPAD, AKAP, AICS, and 4Ps is prohibited from May 2 to May 12, 2025; and candidates or elective officials are barred from participating in distribution activities.
The DA is also required to follow Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and agency guidelines, submit periodic disbursement reports, and ensure transparency through media and public access. / EHP