DA aims to reach 60M Filipinos by end-2026
The Department of Agriculture (DA) launched the P20-per-kilogram rice for vulnerable sectors in La Union and Baguio City, and said it aims to reach 60 million Filipinos by the end of 2026, two years earlier than originally planned.
“Our target is to serve 15 million households, about 60 million people, or half the country’s population by the end of 2026… This is in line with the directive of President (Ferdinand) Marcos to make nutritious and affordable food accessible to Filipinos who need them most,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in a statement on Wednesday.
The DA had issued statements on its target to bring the P20/kg rice to 60 million Filipinos by June 30, 2028, the end of President Marcos’s term. The DA’s statement on July 16 moved the target two years earlier to the end of 2026.
The DA also announced that Tiu Laurel signed on July 8, Administrative Circular (AC) No. 10 series of 2025, which lowered the maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) for imported rice to P43 per kg from P45 per kg. It was only made public on Wednesday, July 16.
The MSRP adjustment applies specifically to the 5-percent broken rice variety, considered the most commonly consumed among all the varieties of imported rice, the DA said.
Meanwhile, the P20/kg rice program was rolled out in La Union on Tuesday, July 15, and in Baguio City, the next day.
The P20/kg rice is now available for sale to vulnerable sectors in 162 locations nationwide, mostly in the “Kadiwa ng Pangulo” outlets, according to the DA statement.
The vulnerable sectors eligible to buy the P20/kg rice are the solo parents, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, indigent families listed under the government’s conditional cash transfer program called the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the 4Ps, the Walang Gutom Program beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the minimum wage earners identified by participating private companies and the Department of Labor and Employment.
The National Food Authority (NFA) and Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) delivered 150 bags of rice to Baguio City, which benefited 750 individuals, while 100 rice bags were sold to 500 residents in Naguilian, La Union.
Tiu Laurel added that the NFA subsidized rice program has been providing affordable food to consumers while helping decongest NFA warehouses and making space for the purchase of more palay at prices higher than those offered by private traders.
The DA reiterated that each sack of rice moved from the NFA through this P20/kg rice program, has created a space for two bags of palay.
Tiu Laurel said more rollout sites will be opened in the coming weeks, particularly in areas with high poverty incidence.
As for the MSRP on imported rice, the agency had initially planned to lower it at the start of July but postponed it due to the heightened volatility in global commodity markets driven by Middle East tensions.
The DA said the easing of tensions in the region following a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, has stabilized global rice price conditions.
