(Eagle News)–The Senate has approved on third and final reading a resolution that allows the government to distribute rice instead of cash under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps.
Twenty-one senators voted in favor of Senate joint resolution no. 8.
No one dissented or abstained.
According to the resolution, under the 4P’s rice subsidy component, actual rice instead of cash should be distributed to beneficiaries.
Senator Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate committee on agriculture and food, said the Department of Social Welfare and Development will work side by side with the National Food Authority in choosing the local rice to be distributed.
Under the resolution, the rice should be bought from farmers from Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Mindoro Oriental and Occidental, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Zamboanga del Sur and Iloilo.
She said the resolution was to help farmers affected by the drop in the prices of palay after the importation of rice under the Rice Tarrification Law was allowed. Meanne Corvera
