House Speaker Martin Romualdez stated on Tuesday, December 12, that rice discount vouchers will be distributed by the government to 7 million marginalized Filipino families in 2024.
In partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Local Government Units (LGUs), each family beneficiary will be given a rice discount voucher under the new program called Bagong Pilipinas Community Assistance and Rice Discount (CARD).
This program aims to help marginalized Filipinos to be able to afford 25kg of rice monthly.
“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 in a statement.
According to the Summary Inflation Report Consumer Price Index for November 2023 from the Philippine Statistics Authority, the price of rice inflated to 15.8 percent from 13.2 percent.
There is a budget allocation for this program under the proposed P5.768 trillion budget from the 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) that was ratified by the Senate on Monday, December 11, 2023.
