Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. is joining the launching of the sale of rice at P20 per kilo in Bacolod City on Thursday morning, June 5, Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said.
The National Food Authority has 9,000 sacks of rice that the Bacolod City government will avail of for the P20 a kilo rice program , Benitez said.
The city government is allocating an initial P8 million as its counterpart for the program and it will be up to incoming mayor Greg Gasataya to decide on future allocations, he said.
Benitez stressed the need to bring down and stabilize the prices of food to lower inflation.
Senior citizens, persons with disabilities, indigents and those under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program can avail of the P20 per kilo rice, DA Regional Director Jose Albert Barrogo of the Negros Island Region, earlier said.
Under the program each family can buy 10 kilos of the P20 rice per week, he said.
The Food Terminal Incorporated will buy rice from the National Food Authority at P33 per kilo. The P13 difference will then be subsidized by the Department of Agriculture and local government unit, Barrogo said.
The Negros Occidental provincial government is prepared to allocate an initial P10 million as its counterpart subsidy for the sale of rice at P20 per kilo, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz also said earlier.*