• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz II said on Friday, May 2, that the selling of the P20 per kilo rice to the prioritized sectors in Negros Occidental may start after the May 12 elections.
This was after the Commission on Elections imposed a 10-day ban on the distribution of all forms of assistance, which took effect on May 2 and will end on May 12, which is the election day.
Diaz said the provincial government has enough funds to implement the program of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
He said, however, there is no clear guidelines yet from the Department of Agriculture (DA) on how it will be implemented by the local government units (LGUs).
Diaz noted that the selling of rice at a cheaper price has long been started by the irrigators associations in Negros Occidental, and was being sold at the food terminal market in Bacolod City.
He said that the National Food Authority has allotted 5,800 sacks of rice worth P7 million for the Food Security Emergency Program.
Under the program, indigent families are eligible to buy the P20-per kilo rice at a maximum of 40 kilos a month.
According to the DA, to make the P20-per kilo rice possible, P6.50 will be subsidized by the state-owned Food Terminal Inc. while another P6.50 will be shouldered by the LGUs. | GB
