(Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte said his province had been chosen as among the initial local government unit (LGU)-partners of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in selling rice priced as low as P33 per kilo.

Villafuerte said this was an offshoot of the DA's declaration of a food security emergency earlier this month—as recommended by the National Price Coordinating Council (NPCC)—to stabilize rice prices. 

“In partnership with the DA, NFA (National Food Authority) and FTI (Food Terminal Inc.), the provincial government, along with several LGUs in Metro Manila, are selling cheaper rice, as part of the President’s commitment to fight elevated inflation by, among others, enabling Filipino consumers to buy rice acquired by the NFA at more affordable prices,” Villafuerte, a former three-term governor, said in a statement Thursday, Feb. 27.

Available at Kadiwa centers and other government outlets, the cheaper rice will be priced from P33 to P35 per kilo.

Villafuerte said that in particular, the provincial government of CamSur will sell the P33-per-kilo rice at the Provincial Capitol in the capital municipality of Pili, in Kadiwa outlets, and through other LGUs in the province.

He said the DA, NFA, and FTI plans to eventually expand the program in order to benefit more Filipinos.

Villafuerte said the provincial government will be subsidizing the added expenses such as the operational costs to make the lowered prices for the staple grain possible. 

“We will absorb logistics and other costs so we can sell at P33 a kilo, or without any markup, in support of this pro-consumer  program of the President,” he said.

“This is certainly good news not only for our consumers but for our palay growers likewise as they and their families are rice consumers themselves, and also because the NFA, in being able to dispose of its buffer stocks stored in its warehouses, will be able to buy more produce from our farmers in the summer harvest season, which it can then sell to LGUs, Kadiwa centers and other government outlets,” he explained.

Villafuerte says that while Camarines Sur is the country’s No. 6 rice producer, "We must not forget that our farmers are also rice consumers, so the cheaper rice at P33 a kilo will benefit both our consumers and our palay growers."

The National Unity Party (NUP) president says the province's initial allocation is 25,000 sacks of rice, and this project will benefit an estimated 250,000 people in his province. 

According to the DA, at least 67 LGUs, including Camarines Sur and several Metro Manila LGUs, have expressed their intent to join this program.