ONLY sari-sari store owners who are registered with their local government units and comply with the price ceiling set by the government for regular and well-milled rice are qualified to receive the P15,000 cash grant for small and micro rice retailers.
Assistant secretary Rommel Lopez, who is also the spokesman of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), made the clarification as the agency starts the distribution of the rice grant under the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) for sari-sari store owners today.
The distribution was initially set to take off yesterday.
“The one-time SLP-cash assistance program will continue to reach impacted rice retailers, including those small businesses and sari-sari stores,” he said, adding that the pay out to qualified sari-sari store owners is in response to the order of President Marcos Jr. to assist those affected by the imposed price cap of P45 per kilo on well-milled and P41 per kilo regular-milled rice, which was set under Executive Order 39.
Lopez said priority will be given to sari-sari store owners who are following the price cap and those whose stores are registered with the Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO) of their respective local government units LGUs.
He said the sari-sari store must also be registered in its barangay and has participated in the LGU’s nano-retailer program to qualify for the program and be eligible to receive the cash aid.
The DSWD has already provided more than P92.3 million worth of cash aid to some 6,161 micro and small rice retailers affected by the price ceiling on rice nationwide.
COOPERATE OR FACE RAPS
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Monday urged government officials to cooperate in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) ongoing investigation into the smuggling of agricultural products into the country.
Remulla said the DOJ will not hesitate in filing charges against erring government officials and personnel before the Office of the Ombudsman if they refuse or fail to cooperate.
“If they don’t cooperate, dadalhin namin sila sa Ombudsman. ‘Yan ang utos ng Pangulo. Wala hong puweng tumanggi na tumulong sa DOJ (If they do not cooperate, we will file charges against them with the Ombudsman. That’s the order of the President. No one can refuse to help the DOJ),” Remulla told CNN Philippines.
Remulla said the move is meant to ensure the successful implementation of government efforts to stamp out the smuggling of agricultural products such as onion and rice.
He said agricultural smuggling cases were dismissed in the past due to lack of evidence, a situation which he said he will not tolerate under his watch.
Remulla said he has directed prosecutors to ask complainants to produce evidence needed to bolster their case.
“Prosecutors are supposed to elicit from the complainants the evidence that have to be adduced to pursue a case,” he said, adding that prosecutors must prove that smuggling cases lack substantial basis for it to be dismissed.
In May this year, the DOJ told the Senate that of the 159 smuggling cases filed since 2016, only nine have reached the courts while the rest were dismissed due to lack of probable cause.
Last week, the National Bureau of Investigation filed with the DOJ profiteering and hoarding cases against six individuals in connection with their alleged link to the smuggling of onions that caused prices of the bulb to skyrocket last year.
Remulla said the six individuals are current and former government officials but still declined to identify them due to the ongoing review of the cases by the DOJ.
He said the officials have been officially notified of the complaints against them.
“The cases have already been forwarded to a panel of prosecutors tasked with evaluating it,” Remulla said.
