House Speaker Martin Romualdez (left), President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (Speaker’s office, Facebook)

House Speaker Martin Romualdez hailed President Marcos for delivering on his campaign promise of P20 per kilo rice just over halfway into the latter's six-year term.

This, after Marcos instructed the Department of Agriculture to begin selling rice at P20 per kilo across Western, Central, and Eastern Visayas next week.

Marcos made the announcement just over two weeks before the conduct of the mid-term elections, where 11 of his handpicked candidates under the Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas ticket are vying for seats in the Senate.

Romualdez described the initiative  as the first big step toward achieving affordable rice for for every Filipino family. Rice is the country's staple food.

“Simula pa lang ito. Gagawin nating alaala, kasaysayan na lang ang mahal na bigas. Sa tulong ng whole-of-government effort, masusundan ito hanggang maabot ng programa ang bawat sulok ng bansa,” said the leader of the 306-strong House of Representatives.

(This is just the beginning. We will make expensive rice a thing of the past, turning it into a mere memory, a piece of history. Through a whole-of-government effort, this initiative will continue until the program reaches every corner of the country.)

He noted that retail prices—which reached P60 per kilo in some markets last year—have already slid down to the P35 to P39 range for many consumers.

The Speaker praised Visayas local government units (LGUs) for sharing the subsidy cost with the national government. He said this arrangement was the true form of "bayanihan economics".

Romualdez says the Visayas launch, capped at 10 kilos per week for each household until logistical kinks are ironed out, will enable the DA to assess warehousing capacity, inter-island shipping routes, and Kadiwa retail points to address issues before a wider roll-out.

For long-term solutions, the Speaker said the House is committed to supporting agricultural modernization—mechanization, high-quality seed distribution, soil-health programs, and solar-powered irrigation—so the vision of “abot-kayang bigas (affordable rice)” endures beyond the pilot implementation. 

He said these investments constitute “the backbone of durable, cheap, and plentiful rice”. He also bared that the House was considering to establish financing mechanisms that funnel tariff savings and public-private resources into modern post-harvest infrastructure.

The Speaker said the House was also considering various proposals to ensure a sustainable and nationwide rollout of an affordable rice program.