Financial aid distribution to rice retailers and monitoring of rice prices will continue despite President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s announcement Wednesday, October 4, of the lifting of the price cap on regular and well-milled rice.
Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo Pascual, in a press conference in Makati City, said the government will still release the financial aid to small retailers selling the rice who have not received the P15,000 cash assistance.
As of September 29, the government, through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), has released P217.2 million under the Sustainable Livelihood Program-Economic Relief Subsidy to 14,480 out of the 19,685 targeted rice retailers nationwide.
DTI has helped the DSWD in identifying, profiling, and validating the beneficiaries of the cash aid.
Since Executive Order 39, which set price ceilings of P41 per kilo for regular-milled rice and P45 a kilo for well-milled rice, took effect on September 5, the Trade Chief said the compliance rate of retailers nationwide was high at 81.46 percent as of September 28.*PNA