THE House of Representatives and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) yesterday launched a food and rice assistance program in Metro Manila and Laguna with the aim of providing aid to an initial 335,000beneficiaries.
Speaker Martin Romualdez said the Cash and Rice Distribution (CARD) program will go beyond Metro Manila and Laguna to include the rest of the 250 congressional districts nationwide and is targeted at giving assistance to 2.5 million indigent and vulnerable Filipinos all over the country.
The initial launch of the CARD program covers 10,000 poor and vulnerable beneficiaries from each of the 33 legislative districts in the National Capital Region (NCR), and 3,000 and 2,000 beneficiaries each from Biñan City and Sta. Rosa, respectively.
The amount of assistance for each beneficiary — which will also include senior citizens, Persons with Disabilities (PWD), solo parents and indigenous peoples (IP) — totals at least P2,000, broken down as P950 for a 25-kilogram sack of rice at P38 per kilo, and the remaining in cash to buy other food essentials. The distribution of the assistance will be divided into four payouts.
The DSWD is tasked to identify the beneficiaries and may increase the amount of assistance in some areas, depending on its evaluation of the prevailing circumstances.
Romualdez said the CARD program is in response to President Marcos Jr.’s challenge to district representatives to create a program that will give rice aid to the poor to cushion the sky-rocketing prices of basic commodities, largely in part because of global inflation.
The House leader, who is a first cousin of the President, said CARD also serves “as a countermeasure against those holding large rice stocks and those involved in price manipulation.”
Romualdez attended the launching of the CARD program in Biñan City, which coincided with the launching of the President’s Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair (BPSF or Serbisyo) in the province following its successful launch in Biliran, Davao de Oro, Leyte, Camarines Sur, and Ilocos Norte.
Romualdez, one of the principal organizers of the BPSF law, reiterated that the government is committed to bring more than 60 government services closer to the people by visiting all 82 provinces.
“The Serbisyo Fair truly breathed life into the aspirations of President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Romualdez Marcos Jr. to bring so many government programs within the reach of people who may not have the means to avail of these benefits,” he said.
The grand launch of the BPSF in the town of Nabua in Camarines Sur was led by the President himself and launched simultaneously in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Tolosa town in Leyte in Visayas, and in the Municipality of Monkayo, Davao de Oro in Mindanao.
The program was expected to initially benefit 400,00 plus Filipinos seeking to avail more than 60 services offered by various government agencies with a fund of at least P1 billion.
The BPSF national secretariat is comprised of the Office of the President, the Office of the Speaker, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), and the House of Representatives.
Under the project, beneficiaries will have easy access to government projects and programs in the areas of social services, health and medical support, livelihood, and educational assistance, services in regulatory functions, and other bureaucratic services aimed to capacitate and benefit them.
Special Assistant to the President Antonio Ernesto Lagdameo Jr., who represented the President during the event in Laguna, said the BPSF aims to provide reliable government services to the Filipino people.
Government services such as application for renewal of application and other requests for assistance were also provided during the fair, which was participated by various national and local government offices.
Lagdameo led the Serbisyo fair while Romualdez launched the CARD program distribution event in Laguna province.