House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Speaker’s office)

Congress has set aside funds from the proposed P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024 for the implementation of a program that would pull down the price of good quality rice by almost half for the benefit of seven million poor Filipino families. 

Thus, bared House Speaker Martin Romualdez, who said that the program would use monthly rice discount vouchers. 

“This subsidy program is our strong response to President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr.’s call to the House of Representatives to come up with [a] means to bring down the price of rice for disadvantaged Filipino families in difficult situations. It will benefit seven million families across legislative districts in the country, or roughly 28 million people,” Romualdez said. 

The program aims to provide each family-beneficiary with 25 kilograms of affordable and good quality rice monthly. 

“This is a recalibration of our Cash and Rice Distribution (CARD) Program, and we made it more sustainable by transforming it into a rice discount voucher program so that more families can enjoy buying affordable rice,” the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) president said. 

Initially dubbed Bagong Pilipinas Community Assistance and Rice Discount (CARD), the new program was formulated in partnership with Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian and the local government units (LGUs).  

Romualdez, Leyte’s 1st district congressman, said that the Bagong Pilipinas CARD will serve as a discount voucher for beneficiaries to purchase rice at a discounted rate. 

It will be operationalized through the DSWD’s Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) under next year’s national budget. 

The DSWD is mandated to formulate further rules and regulations regarding the program. 

The House of Representatives and the Senate have agreed to fund the program during the Bicameral Committee conference hearings on the 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) as a way to give life to President Marcos’ aspirations of bringing down the price of rice. 

The House and Senate comprise Congress under the country’s bicameral legislative set-up. 

The additional AICS funds will cover the necessary budget allocations for the rice discount vouchers. 

Romualdez said the program seeks to alleviate the burden on low-income families by providing discount vouchers directly to the families. The program aims to make a measurable and immediate impact on their financial well-being while ensuring access to an essential food source. 

He explained that the program would utilize the advantages of technology for efficient voucher distribution, tracking, and validation and to safeguard from misuse. 

“This program is to show all Filipinos that Congress and the administration of President Marcos Jr. are doing everything to bring down the price of rice for a more significant number of Filipino families. Ang kapakanan ng pamilyang Pilipino ang aming nasa isipan sa proyektong ito,” he said.