Vice President Sara Duterte (PPAB)

DAGUPAN CITY Pangasinan--Members of the Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial ticket gave commonsensical--and at the same time savage--responses to Vice President Sara Duterte's criticism on Preaident Marcos' roll-out of his long-promised P20-per-kilo rice.

It was almost like administration Senate bets Vicente "Tito" Sotto III, Abby Binay, and Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, were trying hard to beat some sense into the second highest official of the land.

In a press conference here Friday, April 25, the Alyansa candidates were asked to react to Vice President Duterte's panning of the P20-per-kilo rice, which will be sold in various parts of the Visayas starting next week.

Duterte reportedly called the reduced price of the staple grain "too little, too late", and also questioned the timing of the Marcos administration's move since the May 12 mid-term polls was just around the the corner.

"Well, may kasabihan na (there’s a saying that) 'It's better late than never,'" Sotto, a former Senate President, said.

"Sa subsidy lang, gobyerno daw ang babayad. Oh eh ano? Dapat, pera din nila yun eh. Tapos taumbayan din ang kakain nung pera na yun eh...kesa naman maku-corrupt lang eh. Kanino nila gusto mapunta, sa bulsa ng mga corrupt?" he said.

(They said government will subsidize it. So what? That's the people's own money. And the people will be consuming that money...that's better than ending up in corruption. Where do they want the money to go, in the pockets of corrupt people?)

As for the claim that the timing of the roll-out was suspicious, Sotto said: "Ganun talaha eh (That’s the way it is). Whatever timing it is, kahit na last year pa yan, sasabihin kunektado sa election (even if it happened last year, they will say that it's connected to the elections)."

"You will never be able to please everyone. The important thing you do what it is right for the benefit of the people, whether it's elections or not," he underscored.

Binay, the current mayor of Makati City, says that holding off the peddling of P20-per-kilo rice when it is already implementable does not make any sense.

'Kung maibibigay mo na ngayon, ibigay mo na'

"Sasabihin mo ba sa mga tao, 'After the election na lang ha?' Doon ko lang ibibigay yung murang bigas kasi sasabihin namumulitika ako (Would you tell the people, 'Let's just do this after the elections, OK? We will give the affordable rice by then because they'll just accuse me now of politicking)," she said, her sarcasm evident.

"Hindi naman ho ganun ang trabaho ng gobyerno eh; kung maibibigay mo na ngayon, ibigay mo na (That’s not how government works; if you can give it to them now, then you give it to them)," noted Binay.

The Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas senatorial slate in Pangasinan (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

She says that the "too little, too late" claim doesn't hold water either, since President Marcos is only on the halfway mark of his six-year term.

"Accomplishment nga yan na mayroon na siyang nagawa (That’s already an accomplishment) in the first three years of his administration," Binay said of the Chief Executive--Alyansa's main endorser.

For his part, Lacson, a former senator and Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, have a sweet and simple response to the Vice President's criticims.

"My take ano, kapag ka tinutulungan mo yung kahirapan at sa gutom, nothing is too late, nothing is too little (My take is that nothing is too little, too late if you're helping to ease poverty and hunger)," he said.

President Marcos earlier directed the Department of Agriculture (DA) to begin selling rice at P20 per kilo across Western, Central, and Eastern Visayas next week. To bring down rice prices to that level was one of Marcos' campaign promises in 2022.