President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he will continue the program of making National Food Authority (NFA) rice available at P20 per kilogram in 2026 without subsidies from local government units (LGUs).
The government will also continue buying farmers’ palay at farmgate prices higher than those offered by rice traders, he added.
Speaking in the latter part of his podcast’s episode 2 on Wednesday, Marcos said that aside from sustaining the “Benteng Bigas Meron na” program, his government would work towards having it run without government subsidy at all.
“Once the production side improves some more, we can bring the prices down, without subsidy,” Marcos said in Filipino. “We can do that. We can do it. We already did it before. We even exported rice,” he added, when asked if the government could sustain the P20/kg rice program and increase the volume of rice production within his term.
The president said he will forgo the subsidy provided by LGUs to keep the NFA rice at P20 per kilo starting 2026. Marcos added he would like the national government to subsidize the P20/kilo rice on its own. “Let’s go further. What is happening now is, we are in partnership with the LGUs. Eventually, I’m looking at a proposal for next year, LGUs would no longer contribute. The contribution would all come from the national government,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.
The President said that since he assumed office, his administration had been focusing on increasing rice production to raise the supply and eventually lower the prices.
Marcos said that in 2023, the country recorded its highest rice production to date, confident that it would be surpassed in 2025.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that rice production in 2023 reached 20.06 million metric tons of palay, which slightly dropped to 19.09 million metric tons in 2024. In the first quarter of 2025, palay production was at 4.7million metric tons.
“The people may not know that in 2023, we had the largest crop of palay in the history of the Philippines…In 2025, we predict we will surpass it. So, our production is slowly going up,” the president said.
The president said at present, the country’s rice production has reached an adequate volume to supply 51 percent of the population.
The government has been assisting farmers to improve their harvest through the provision of machinery to farmers, improved irrigation, and improved rice varieties with the use of more high yielding seeds, among others.
The president said that even with the projected increases in rice harvests, the government will continue to buy palay from local farmers at prices higher than what traders usually offer, in a bid to support the farmers and their families.
“We have to support them. So, whatever happens to the prices of rice that we sell on the market, we will not lower the buying price used by NFA. It will never go down,” he said. “And hopefully, we will bring it up to the point that rice for all, it will all be 20 pesos,” Marcos added.
In May, the government started selling NFA rice at P20 per kilo, which President Marcos Jr. has committed to maintain until the end of his term in 2028.
Data from the Department of Agriculture show that the P20/kilo rice is now sold in 123 sites nationwide, including the Kadiwa ng Pangulo centers, kiosks and stalls in public markets, and the buildings and compounds of local government units.
