A market vendor waits for customers in front of their rice and grains store inside public market in Quezon City. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News/file

MANILA — The government eyes distributing rice discount vouchers to 7 million poor Filipino families next year, House Speaker Martin Romualdez said in a statement. 

Romualdez said that under the Bagong Pilipinas Community Assistance and Rice Discount (CARD), government hopes to help indigent Filipinos buy 25 kilograms of affordable and good quality rice monthly.

The program will be operationalized through the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) under next year’s national budget.

The program would make use of technology for efficient voucher distribution, tracking, and validation, and safeguard against misuse. 

DSWD will be mandated to make additional rules for the program.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) earlier said that prices of nearly all agricultural products remained stable ahead of the Christmas and New Year festivities.

But rice price watchdog Bantay Bigas warned that prices of regular-milled rice could reach up to P60 per kilo due to gaps in local supply and rising prices in the international market.

Published Date: December 12, 2023