Latest news with #Kadiwa
GMA Network
3 days ago
- Business
- GMA Network
Inflation, economy, price of rice: Where PH stands since SONA 2024
A resident of San Andres in Malate, Manila, purchases P20 per kilo rice at a Kadiwa center in the Bureau of Animal Industry on May 15, 2025. DANNY PATA Around this time last year, President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. opened his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) not with his administration's feats, but with the daunting reality check that the fruits of economic progress were not felt by ordinary Filipinos faced with the rising prices of commodities—particularly rice. 'The hard lesson of this last year has made it very clear that whatever current data proudly bannering our country as among the best-performing in Asia, means nothing to a Filipino, who is confronted by the price of rice at 45 to 65 pesos per kilo," Marcos said in his report to the nation on Monday, July 22, 2024. "Bagamat maganda ang mga istatistikang ito, wala itong kabuluhan sa ating kababayan na hinaharap ang realidad na mataas ang presyo ng mga bilihin, lalo na ang pagkain—lalo't higit, ng bigas," the President said. (Although the statistics are good, these mean nothing to our countrymen who face the reality of high prices of goods, especially food, and most especially, rice.) With this, Marcos declared 'hindi tayo titigil sa paglalaban sa kahirapan, at sa paghahanap ng lunas upang maibalik sa normal ang presyo ng bilihin—lalo na ang bigas [we will not stop in battling poverty and finding solutions to normalize the prices of goods—especially rice.]' IBON Foundation executive director Sonny Africa told GMA News Online that the President opened his 2024 SONA 'well, with the acknowledgement that the majority of Filipinos aren't feeling any benefits from hyped economic growth.' 'If sincere, this could've signaled a reorientation of economic policy to favor poor and middle-class Filipinos instead of the narrowest slice of rich families and large corporations at the very top,' Africa said. The President will once again face the nation to deliver his report on July 28, 2025—halfway through his term. GMA News Online looked at what the Marcos administration has so far accomplished in terms of fulfilling the chief executive's promise to lower inflation and rice prices. Inflation Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that inflation—which measures the rate of growth in consumer goods and services costs—slowed down to 3.2%, well within the government's ceiling of 2% to 4%, from 6% in 2023. The PSA attributed the full-year 2024 inflation decline to the downtrend in food and non-alcoholic beverages at 4.4% from 7.9% in 2023 as well as the lower print seen in electricity, gas and other fuels at 1.7% from 4.9% year-on-year. As of end-June 2025, inflation rate cooled down further to 1.8%. Also in June this year, food inflation—which tracks the price movements of food items in a "basket" commonly purchased by households—eased to 0.1% from 0.7% in May and from 6.5% in June of last year. This was on the back of a steeper deflation in rice at -14.3% from -12.8% in May. Rice prices Rice inflation has been contracting for six months in a row and is seen to end the year at a 'negative inflation' print, consistent with the PSA's expectation that it would begin easing towards the second half of 2024 due to base effects, particularly when it began its uptrend in August 2023, as well as the impact of lower rice import tariff which took effect early July last year. In the third year of his presidency, Marcos was able to fulfill his campaign promise of lowering the price of rice to P20 per kilo in a bid to ease the burden of consumers on the increasing price of one of Filipinos' basic food commodities. Initially launched in the Visayas region last April, at least 162 locations across the country have been offering the cheaper subsidized rice, according to the Department of Agriculture. Members of the vulnerable sectors are on the priority list of who can avail the P20 per kilo of rice. The P20-per-kilo rice initiative operates primarily through KADIWA ng Pangulo outlets. The rice is being sourced from stocks of the National Food Authority, which are procured directly from local farmers. The subsidized rice program not only ensures affordable food staple for consumers but also helps decongest NFA warehouses. Moreover, this will make space to purchase more palay at prices higher than those offered by private traders. Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the target is to serve 15 million households or about 60 million people by the end of 2026. The DA also vowed to intensify the implementation of industry recovery and expansion programs, such as the Swine Industry Recovery Project (SIRP) and Livestock Economic Enterprise Development, to strengthen food supply chains. IBON Foundation's Africa, however, said programs of the administration 'will all be tokenistic and exaggerated public relations efforts if the government does not commit budgets, resources and energy commensurate to the magnitude of the problems at hand.' 'The President spoke about supporting agriculture but, if anything, the smaller share of the sector in the 2025 budget to 3.9% of the total from 4.1% in 2024 indicates a deprioritization of interventions that were already inadequate to begin with,' he said. GDP target missed As far as economic targets are concerned, the Marcos administration still has a far way to go, missing its GDP growth target for the second straight year. In 2024, the economy only grew by 5.7%, revised from earlier reported 5.6% growth, below the 6.0% to 7.0% target for the year. Growth surpassed the target ceiling in 2022 at 7.6%. As of the first quarter of 2025, the country's GDP grew by 5.4%, faster than the upwardly revised growth rate of 5.3% in the last quarter of 2024. With missed targets, the Development Budget Coordination Committee has slashed again the growth goals for 2025 to 5.5% to 6.5% range from the previous target of 6.0% to 8.0%. The economic team cited heightened global uncertainties, such as the unforeseen escalation of tensions in the Middle East and the imposition of US tariffs as considerations for adjusting the growth targets. Nonetheless, the administration's aspiration to elevate the Philippines to upper-middle-income country (UMIC) seems to be getting closer, as it missed the minimum for entering the UMIC bracket under the World Bank's classification by $26. The country remained a lower-middle-income economy as its GNI per capita in 2024 stood at $4,470, while the required GNI per capita to enter the UMIC roster was at $4,496 to $13,935. — BM/NB, GMA Integrated News
GMA Network
5 days ago
- Business
- GMA Network
P20/kilo rice, farm to market roads remain work in progress
In his 2024 State of the Nation Address, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. highlighted the hardships confronting the Filipinos due to the rising prices of food. "The hard lesson of this last year has made it very clear that whatever current data proudly bannering our country as among the best-performing in Asia, means nothing to a Filipino, who is confronted by the price of rice at 45 to 65 pesos per kilo," Marcos had said in his report to the nation last year. Back then, the price of rice per kilo was far from the P20 per kilo he had promised the Filipinos when he campaigned for the presidency in 2022. But the efforts of Marcos, who sat as Agriculture secretary from July 2022 to November 2023, could not be ignored to achieve his P20 per kilo rice goal. The government, through the Department of Agriculture (DA), has been consistently opening Kadiwa stores that sell rice at P20 per kilo. Marcos also vowed to prioritize enhancing local production to address the high food cost and build the necessary infrastructure to prop up agricultural productivity and assist farmers. He had said in his SONA that a total of 1,200 kilometers of farm-to-market roads all over the country will be completed. Further, Marcos said over 9,300 farm equipment would be distributed and more than 80,000 hectares of land would be irrigated. The projects remain in the works. In his visit to Balingasag, Misamis Oriental in April 2025, Marcos reported that in Region X (Northern Mindanao), the government was able to construct almost 70 kilometers of farm-to-market roads. "Sa buong bansa, umabot na sa 1,162 kilometro ang naitayo nating mga daan, at higit 865 linyang-metro naman ng tulay," he said. Since his presidency, Marcos said 36,000 pieces of machinery and agricultural equipment had been distributed to farmers' cooperatives and associations for post-harvest. While under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, 12,000 pieces of machinery and equipment had been provided from July 2022 up to March 2025. A month before Marcos' fourth State of the Nation Address, the Economy and Development (ED) Council, formerly known as the NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority) Board, approved the P27.7-billion Farm-to-Market Bridges Development Program of the Department of Agriculture. Under the program, the DA said it aims for the construction of 300 climate-resilient modular steel bridges across 52 provinces in 15 regions. 'By improving physical connectivity in farming and fishing communities, the Farm-to-Market Bridges Development Program addresses persistent infrastructure gaps that limit market access, increase post-harvest losses, and hinder rural productivity," said ED Council vice chairperson and Economics Secretary Arsenio Balisacan. "It also aims to uplift rural incomes and improve food logistics, particularly in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas,' Balisacan added. The Agriculture Department also reported that it had completed over 450 agri-infrastructure projects, including farm-to-market roads, fish ports, and food storage facilities. Further, agriculture insurance now protects more than 1.3 million farmers, livestock raisers, and fishers. 'Through the Masagana Rice Industry Development Program, aligned yields have improved from 3.3 to 4.2 metric pounds per hectare, with the first quarter yields again at 4.09 metric pounds. We are also expanding value-chain innovation,' said DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel in a speech, as delivered by Agriculture Director Karen Roscom in a summit in Manila. Benefits A number of farmers expressed relief with the administration's efforts, saying that farm-to-market roads are a long-awaited solution. 'Mahalaga para sana may madaanan kami at mayroon kaming mapagbiladan ng palay namin,' said Robert Lopez, a rice farmer in Mangaldan, Pangasinan, in a report by GMA Regional TV. (It is vital so that we can have paved roads for our goods and an area for drying palay.) Approved by the DA, the local government in Mangaldan and the barangay, a farm-to-market road is set to connect Barangays Guilig, Malabago, and Bari. Initial groundwork, such as soil filling, has already begun. Guilig Councilman Louie Prestoza said the project, which is estimated to reach P3 million, will make it more convenient for farmers to transport their goods and will serve as an alternate route for public and private vehicles in the area. 'Hindi lang kami dito ang mabebenepisyuhan. Marami, kahit na taga-ibang lugar,' Prestoza said. (It is not just us here who will benefit. Many more residents, even from other places.) P20 per kilo of rice Marcos' campaign promise of P20 per kilo of rice has been initially implemented in the Visayas region, and is set to be rolled out across the country in the coming months. The second phase of the program commenced this July in the Mindanao region. Marcos said it took time for him to fulfill his promise because the government needs to assist the local farmers first, including the provision of machinery. The P20 per kilo rice initiative under the Kadiwa ng Pangulo program only allows members of vulnerable sectors—including indigents, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and solo parents to buy NFA rice at P20 per kilogram. Moreover, it can also be availed by minimum wage earners. Marcos expressed confidence that his administration could sustain its implementation. Increasing prices of goods With the price of some goods increasing, Marcos said the government is also monitoring "price gouging" in the consumer market. "Iyon lamang binabantayan natin ngayon 'yung price gouging. Dahil ang dami ko nang nakita nagtataas ng presyo, hindi naman tumaas ang presyo ng langis. So, iyon ang babantayan natin ngayon. That's what we are going to watch," he said. (We're monitoring the price gouging. Because I've seen a lot of price hikes even though fuel prices have not increased. So that's what we will monitor right now. That's what we are going to watch.) Farmers However, the progressive group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said that farmers and fisherfolk remain waiting for the fulfilment of the President's SONA promises. KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos lamented that majority of the Filipino farmers do not own the land they till, and continue to lose it due to land conversion. He also said the people in other areas of the country await the affordable rice promised by Marcos. Ramos said they also continue to long for the day when the country would be rice self-sufficient and would no longer need to buy imported rice.—LDF/RSJ, GMA Integrated News
GMA Network
27-05-2025
- Business
- GMA Network
DA, DOLE to include minimum wage earners in P20/kg rice program
Minimum wage earners will soon have access to the government's pilot test of the P20 per kilogram rice initiative, which has been initially rolled out to vulnerable sectors. This developed after the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) "agreed in principle" to include minimum wage earners in the ongoing pilot run of the subsidized rice program, the DA said in a statement on Tuesday. Launched early this month, the P20 per kilogram rice initiative under the Kadiwa ng Pangulo program only allows members of vulnerable sectors—including indigents, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and solo parents to buy NFA rice at P20 per kilogram. Rice sold in Kadiwa centers is subsidized by the government through the Food Terminal Inc. For programs where local government units (LGUs) share the subsidy, it will be up to the LGUs to determine eligibility. The limit is 30 kilograms per household. Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma and Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. had a discussion on the former's proposal for the inclusion of minimum wage earners in the subsidized rice program, according to the DA. "We had a very good and fruitful discussion in our shared goal of helping our workers, particularly minimum wage earners. By including them in this rice program, we aim to improve their purchasing power," said Laguesma. "We are looking forward to a very successful implementation of this convergence of the DA and the Department of Labor and Employment," said the Labor chief. For his part, Tiu Laurel reaffirmed the DA's commitment to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s directive, emphasizing that strong inter-agency collaboration is essential to sustaining and expanding the impact of this vital social responsibility program. "This initiative stems from the President's promise to extend the P20 rice program to those who need it most," said the DA chief, adding that "for now, participation is limited to workers from companies that have expressed interest in the pilot program." The DA said it expects that eligible workers from participating companies would gain access to the P20 rice program next month. The Agriculture Department is aiming to sustain the program until the end of Marcos' term in June 2028, potentially covering up to 15 million households—or approximately 60 million Filipinos. — VDV, GMA Integrated News
