PROMISE DELIVERED? DA Rolls Out P20 Rice in Visayas; Stocks to Come from Iloilo

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor and Mariela Angella Oladive

Residents of Western Visayas will be the first to benefit from the PHP20-per-kilogram rice program of the government, fulfilling a key campaign promise made by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. during the 2022 elections.

The Department of Agriculture officially launched the rice program in the Visayas on Wednesday, April 23, aiming to provide affordable rice to low-income families across Regions 6, 7, and 8.

DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. announced the program during a press conference in Cebu City, following a meeting with President Marcos and 12 Visayas governors.

He said the program is designed to run until December 2025, with potential extensions through February 2026, and a directive from the president to sustain it until 2028.

“We’ve been thinking about this for a long time. Ever since I came into office, that was the basic question. Can we give PHP20 rice to the masses?” Laurel said.

“At that time, I always answered that it is an aspiration of this administration. It was always on our mind that the DA team has been working, you know, day and night on how to bring this to reality,” he added.

Under the program, eligible families can purchase up to 10 kilograms of rice per week at the subsidized rate, totaling a maximum of 40 kilograms a month.

The subsidy bridges the price gap from the current market price of around PHP33 per kilogram to PHP20, with costs shared between the national government and participating local government units.

The DA attributes the program’s feasibility to a surplus in rice buffer stocks, with warehouses holding more than 358,000 metric tons of palay, exceeding the usual 300,000 metric tons.

Laurel noted that there is a high need for and availability of rice stocks, particularly in Iloilo.

“More people need it here (Visayas). We also have stocks here, especially in Iloilo. We have a lot of stock there, so we can release the stock there. Then we have to also move out our stocks from other areas,” he said.

He added that the DA also needs to reduce its large rice and palay (unmilled rice) inventory in warehouses due to the harvest season.

Laurel said the program is estimated to cost the national government between PHP3.5 billion and PHP4.5 billion, depending on the run rate.

He stressed that global rice prices last year made it impossible to make PHP20 available in the market, but lower prices now make the subsidy more manageable.

Iloilo takes initial steps
As one of the recipients of the program, the provincial government of Iloilo has initiated preparations as early as April 24.

Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. convened department heads under the Civil Defense Cluster, with Department of Agriculture Region 6 Director Dennis Arpia also in attendance.

In a radio interview, Defensor Jr. said that while the program is still in its infancy, groundwork is being laid to align it with existing local food security initiatives.

“We cannot yet say when it will start, how much, or who will be covered, because the program is very young – it’s just beginning,” he said.

“What we want is to be able to sell rice through the LGUs at PHP20 per kilogram, as envisioned by the president,” he added.

Defensor noted that initial preparations will focus on organizing the program’s structure.

This includes finalizing the implementation modality, establishing the procurement process, and identifying the beneficiaries.

“The LGUs won’t be able to distribute this to everyone, so we need to put the program in order,” he stressed, adding that identifying funding sources is also a key concern.

As of writing, the governor is drafting an executive order for the implementation of the rice program, with plans to integrate it into the province’s “Seguridad sa Pagkain, Tiyak na Kalusugan” health and food security interventions under the MOREProGResS Iloilo development agenda.

W.Visayas palay production dips 

Western Visayas, the country’s third-largest rice-producing region, has seen a steady decline in palay output from 2021 to 2024, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In 2021, the region produced 2,356,902.44 metric tons (MT) of palay—a 2.67% increase from the previous year.

But three years later, that number has dropped significantly. By 2024, Western Visayas’ total palay output fell to just 1,891,368 MT, marking a 19.7% decline from 2021.

 

This downward trend was mirrored in the total area harvested, which also shrank from 666,296 hectares in 2023 to 571,971 hectares in 2024, a 14.2% drop year-on-year. Since 2021, the region has lost nearly 100,000 hectares of productive palay land.

Iloilo province consistently led the region in palay production during this period, but it also accounted for the steepest losses.

In 2023, Iloilo harvested 311,306 hectares of palay land; in 2024, this dropped to 255,422 hectares—a reduction of over 55,000 hectares or 8.4 percentage points of the region’s overall decline.

 

Despite these setbacks, Iloilo remained the top contributor to regional palay output, accounting for 44.0% of Western Visayas’ total production in 2024.

 

With rising living costs and surging prices of basic goods, the government has intensified efforts to ease the burden on consumers through various rice programs.

The National Irrigation Administration in Western Visayas has been selling low-cost rice since September 2024 under two programs: “Rice for All” at P35 per kilogram and “Bagong Bayaning Magsasaka” rice at P29 per kilogram.

These programs target marginalized groups such as 4Ps beneficiaries, solo parents, persons with disabilities, and senior citizens.