The Philippine Rice Research Institute is pushing to implement half-cup rice in all food establishments in the country to address the waste of the staple food in the Philippines.
PhilRice Director Karen Eloisa Barroga said that 2.5 million Filipinos are deprived of edible rice yearly because it is wasted.
While wasted rice is equivalent to 10 grams per person or approximately 385,000 metric tons per year worth P7.2 billion.
This is also why PhilRice is campaigning the “Be Riceponsable” program, which means to be responsible and only get rice that can be eaten so as not to go to waste.
“Ano po bang napapansin natin ‘pag may fiesta ‘no? Marami kasi… iyong sabi ng natin ‘takaw-mata’. So we are… actually the campaign says, get only what you need and what we have done in the past was to encourage a half cup serving as default ‘no,” said Barroga.
Doctor Hazel Antonio, Division Head of Development Communication of PhilRice, said that they want to include in the bill to sanction or compensate those who cannot consume rice to prevent its wastage.
Right now, the half-cup rice policy exists in 46 local government units which include Quezon City, Manila, Puerto Princesa, Davao, Cebu, Baguio, Iloilo, and others.
Issuance of Philippine passports to foreigners under investigation
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri tasked the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs and Blue ribbon committee to investigate the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)’s issuance of Philippine passports to foreigners.
According to Zubiri, national security and corruption are issues here because it cannot be done without collusion.
Aside from Zubiri, Senators Loren Legarda and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa also insisted on explaining the DFA personnel who approved the issuance of the passport, as well as the personnel of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) for issuing birth certificate to foreign nationals.
During the hearing of the deliberation of the 2024 national budget of the DFA, Dela Rosa dug up the report of the Department of Justice that there are foreign nationals caught holding authentic Philippine passports.
Dela Rosa insisted that this is very worrying because the People’s Liberation of China might surprise everyone who has been around it.
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