The Marcos administration says that it wants to reduce the price of rice to Php20 per kilogram (kg) but its Benteng Bigas Meron Na! (BBM Na!) program is a publicity device with a very limited budget, research group IBON said. The group stressed that only bold structural reforms, not superficial stop-gap  measures, can deliver genuinely affordable rice to millions of Filipinos.

The BBM Na! program was launched in the Visayas on May 1 and currently sells in 19 towns in Cebu and over 30 Kadiwa centers in Metro Manila and adjacent provinces. Under the program, beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), senior citizens, solo parents, and persons with disabilities can buy up to 30 kgs per month. Contingency funds from the Office of the President were allocated to cover some two million households but only until December 2025.

While offering some short-term relief for a few families, the BBM Na! program smacks of insincerity, said IBON. It rations rice to poor households, scrimps on funding, and leaves out millions who also struggle to afford food.  This is far from the sweeping effort needed to make Php20 rice a reality and is just a public relations gimmick dressed up as policy.

First of all, said the group, the 30-kilo per month cap per household is some 20 kilos short of the 50-kilo monthly consumption of a Filipino family of five members. This is based on the 118.8-kilograms annual rice consumption of Filipinos according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The Php4.5-billion BBM Na! allocation only covers 997,761 households until December, assuming a Php13 subsidy for each kilo of National Food Authority (NFA) rice priced at Php33. IBON said that this leaves behind over a million households from the government’s supposed two million targeted beneficiaries.

Lastly, even BBM Na!’s target of two million households is just a small fraction of its purported beneficiaries. Just the 4Ps already lists over four million households.

IBON said that this exposes BBM Na! as a mere political stunt to quell growing unrest over the president’s unfulfilled campaign promise of Php20 rice. It confirms the government’s insincerity in claiming to champion cheaper rice for Filipinos, especially the vulnerable.

Already in its midterm, the Marcos administration is no closer to achieving affordable rice because it refuses to take the bold measures needed. These include ending dependence on rice imports, providing substantial and direct support to farmers, buying local rice in bulk to sell at low cost nationwide to pull down market prices, and most of all, seriously rebuilding local agriculture. ###