Food, rice aid program rolls out in NCR, Laguna

THE House of Representatives and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) yesterday launched a food and rice assistance program in Metro Manila and Laguna with the aim of providing aid to an initial 335,000beneficiaries.

Speaker Martin Romualdez said the Cash and Rice Distribution (CARD) program will go beyond Metro Manila and Laguna to include the rest of the 250 congressional districts nationwide and is targeted at giving assistance to 2.5 million indigent and vulnerable Filipinos all over the country.

The initial launch of the CARD program covers 10,000 poor and vulnerable beneficiaries from each of the 33 legislative districts in the National Capital Region (NCR), and 3,000 and 2,000 beneficiaries each from Biñan City and Sta. Rosa, respectively.

The amount of assistance for each beneficiary – which will also include senior citizens, Persons with Disabilities (PWD), solo parents and indigenous peoples (IP) – totals at least P2,000, broken down as P950 for a 25-kilogram sack of rice at P38 per kilo, and the remaining in cash to buy other food essentials. The distribution of the assistance will be divided into four payouts.

The DSWD is tasked to identify the beneficiaries and may increase the amount of assistance in some areas, depending on its evaluation of the prevailing circumstances.

Romualdez said the CARD program is in response to President Marcos Jr.’s challenge to district representatives to create a program that will give rice aid to the poor to cushion the sky-rocketing prices of basic commodities, largely in part because of global inflation.

The House leader, who is a first cousin of the President, said CARD also serves “as a countermeasure against those holding large rice stocks and those involved in price manipulation.”

Romualdez attended the launching of the CARD program in Biñan City, which coincided with the launching of the President’s Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair (BPSF or Serbisyo) in the province following its successful launch in Biliran, Davao de Oro, Leyte, Camarines Sur, and Ilocos Norte.

Romualdez, one of the principal organizers of the BPSF law, reiterated that the government is committed to bring more than 60