The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) have started working on the details to give minimum wage earners access to the P20-per-kilogram rice of the National Food Authority, the DA announced in a statement on Tuesday, May 27.
The DOLE agreed in principle to include minimum wage earners in the ongoing pilot run of the P20/kg rice program on Tuesday, the DA said.
Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma met with Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. at the DA office in Quezon City, on Tuesday, and personally “agreed in principle” to the plan, the DA said.
With an initial understanding in place, the DA and the DOLE have started talks into the details of including minimum wage earners in the list of economically vulnerable individuals who can buy the P20/kg rice of the NFA. At present, the vulnerable sectors that can buy up to 30 kilos of rice at P20 per kilo, per household, monthly, are solo parents, persons with disability, senior citizens, and the beneficiaries of the government’s Pamilyang Pilipino Pantawid Program (4Ps).
In the National Capital Region, the minimum wage for non-agricultural private sector workers has been pegged at P645 per day since June 2024.
“This initiative stems from the President’s promise to extend the P20/kg rice program to those who need it most… For now, participation is limited to workers from companies that have expressed interest in the pilot program,” Tiu Laurel said.
He added that the DA and DOLE have started planning to give eligible workers from participating companies access to the P20/kg rice by June 2025.
“We had a very good and fruitful discussion in our shared goal of helping our workers, particularly minimum wage earners. By including them in this rice program, we aim to improve their purchasing power. We are looking forward to a very successful implementation of this convergence of the DA and the DOLE,” Laguesma was quoted as saying in the DA statement.
Laguesma and Tiu Laurel did not provide additional and specific details on the planned sale of the P20/kg rice to minimum wage workers.
Initially, the P20/kg rice was offered to vulnerable groups at the government’s Kadiwa rolling stores. But with the signing of co-subsidy partnerships with local government units, the DA and LGUs agreed that every participating local government can decide to make the P20/kg rice available to as many low-income households as possible. The DA’s memorandum of agreements with LGUs require the participating LGU to shoulder half of the subsidy to bring the retail price of the NFA rice to P20 per kilo.
The DA said that the new partnership with DOLE will further allow the NFA to have more storage spaces to buy additional palay from local farmers at higher prices, ranging from P18 to P24 per kg.
The agency said these rates give farmers a fair return above their average production cost of P12 to P14 per kg.
