FPJ Panday Bayanihan Party-list Rep. Brian Poe took up the cudgels for Filipino farmers during the first day of deliberations on the P6.793-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2026 on Monday, Aug. 18.

This, after Poe pressed the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on the status of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF), and at the same time emphasized its importance to farmers in Pangasinan amid soaring rice prices and recurring climate challenges.

“I want to know the status of this fund and whether it’s been increased in the NEP as compared to the previous years. This is of course for our constituents who are farmers in Pangasinan,” Poe said during the briefing of the Committee on Appropriations with the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC)

Pangasinan is the birthplace of the late Philippine movie icon Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ)--the solon's grandfather.

The DBM--which is part of the DBCC--responded by saying that the funding for RCEF will be expanded under the amended law starting next year.

“We will implement the first year implementation of the law. I think there’s an amendment to the previous RCEF law. There will be an increase in the RCEF with the following breakdown: a total of ₱30 billion pesos – ₱9 billion for rice farm machineries and equipment, ₱6 billion for rice seed development, propagation, and promotion, and the balance of ₱15 billion will go to other priority programs, activities, and projects,” said the DBM which was represented in the hearing by its Secretary Amenah Pangandaman.

Poe, a member of "House Hotshots" stressed that the fund’s effective implementation was crucial as Filipino farmers continued to face surging production costs, intensified typhoons, and a widening gap between farmgate and retail prices.

The neophyte congressman says agriculture remains the lifeblood of Pangasinan and many other provinces. In this regard, local farmers need all the help they can get in facing their current challenges.

Poe that the RCEF should not exist merely as figures in the budget, but as tangible support that farmers can directly benefit from.

Ensuring food security and protecting farmer welfare, he stressed, must remain at the heart of national priorities.

Poe has been vocal in hus quest to ensure that agricultural modernization and mechanization programs reach smallholder farmers, particularly in rice-producing provinces like Pangasinan.The province remains one of the country’s top contributors to the national rice supply.