00:0020 pesos for a bag or kilo of rice? For real or are you out of your mind?
00:06Today, Agricultural Chief Francisco T. Laurel Jr. made public that many think is absolutely and commercially unreal.
00:1420 pesos for a kilo of rice.
00:17And this ultra-cheap crane will make its debut in the Visayas as our Maryvel Custodio details in this report.
00:25Rice can now be bought for as low as 20 pesos for a kilo.
00:31Department of Agriculture's Secretary Francisco T. Laurel Jr. announced during a press conference held earlier at the Cebu Provincial Capitol.
00:38The pilot implementation of this program will first be carried out in the Visayas region.
00:43This comes after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met with DA and 12 governors from the Visayas.
00:49Our President has given the directive to the Department of Agriculture to formulate this to be sustainable and to ituloy-tuloy hanggang 2028.
01:03It can be recalled that one of the President's campaign promises during the last presidential election was to lower the price of rice to 20 pesos per kilo.
01:12This implementation also aims to hasten the release of rice stocks from warehouses.
01:16Especially in Iloilo, where a large amount of rice is still in storage.
01:21Dati 300,000 tons pa lang ang stocks datin eh.
01:24Dati 358 na because harvest season.
01:26So marami rin talaga yung stocks natin of palay and rice, no?
01:31And the rice equivalent.
01:32So we really have to move out and dispose.
01:35This huge development was made possible through the continuous effort of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.'s administration
01:41to ensure the food prices remains affordable to ultimately attain food security.
