President Ferdinand Marcos Jr intends to give rice allowance to government employees as part of their salary.
In Toni Gonzaga’s exclusive interview with the President that aired the other day, he said he wants to ensure every family has rice.
“In fact, I’m — maybe I can say it now, I’m going to initiate in our — at least for the government workers, the rice allowance. Part of the salary is given, the payment is in rice so we can be sure that everybody, every family will have rice,” Marcos said.
Since the government will buy the rice, he said, the employee will be able to afford it and not have to buy it more expensive in the market.
The President made it clear that rice producers will not lose business because there will be demand because the government will buy a lot.
He also pointed out that many large corporations will make rice allowances, so the government will also start this.
Marcos to give rice allowance to gov’t employees
“Marami naman diyan sa malalaking korporasyon mayroon na silang rice allowance eh. So we will institutionalize it. So at the very least, mayroon tayong ganoon. This is life and death and the people are living very close to the subsistence level,” said Marcos.
(Many of the big corporations already have a rice allowance. So we will institutionalize it. So at the very least, we have that. This is life and death, and the people live very close to the subsistence level.)
In June, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) devised a strategy to achieve President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s goal of selling rice to consumers at rates significantly lower than the existing average of P39 per kilo.
During the campaign, Marcos Jr. promised to reduce the price of rice to P20 per kilo, which agricultural stakeholders stated was unfeasible due to the rising costs of producing, marketing, and transporting the staple.
However, Agrarian Reform Secretary Bernie Cruz stated Monday that consumers might buy a kilo of rice for P20 as early as next year.
Visit our Facebook page for more news updates.