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Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star
December 28, 2025 | 12:00am
Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. and officials from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) launch the “Benteng Bigas Meron Na” project at the Manila Harbour Centre in Vitas, Tondo, Manila on June 13, 2025.
Ryan Baldemor / The Philippine STAR
MANILA, Philippines — The government is set to expand the availability of the P20 per kilo rice to an estimated 15.6 million lower middle class households by January.
The sector would be added to the current beneficiaries of the “Benteng Bigas Meron Na” program of the Department of Agriculture, which includes the elderly, single parents, persons with disability, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiaries, farmers, fisherfolk, minimum wage earners and transport workers, National Food Authority (NFA) administrator Larry Lacson told radio dzBB yesterday.
An inter-agency committee would determine qualified households based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority and the Social Security System, as well as data on enrolment in public schools from the Department of Education, Lacson explained.
He said qualified households may also be required to register in the centralized masterlist of the cheaper rice program.
Presently, the P20 per kilo rice is available in all 82 provinces in the country through around 450 “Kadiwa ng Pangulo” centers set up in select NFA warehouses and local government units.
With an estimated 2.2 million to 2.9 million bags of milled rice currently available, the expanded P20 per kilo rice program would be able to distribute a million bags monthly, Lacson said.
He pointed out the NFA plans to speed up the bidding for service providers to mill new supply of rice to replenish the stock used for the expanded program.
