Speaker Martin Romualdez joined lawmakers and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Sunday in handing out cash and rice assistance to 335,000 recipients in Metro Manila and Laguna.
Dubbed as the Cash and Rice Distribution (CARD) Program, the groundbreaking project is in response to the challenge of President Marcos for Romualdez and the House of Representatives to give rice aid to poor and vulnerable families.
The aid is channeled through legislative districts in Metro Manila and two cities in Laguna in collaboration with the DSWD under Secretary Rex Gatchalian.
“This is an historic day not only for Laguna but for the entire Metro Manila,” Romualdez said.
The CARD Program benefits 10,000 indigent families in each of Metro Manila’s 33 legislative districts with the aid divided into four payouts.
Alongside the launch in the metro was the distribution in Biñan City to 3,000 beneficiaries and in Sta. Rosa City for 2,000 families.
Each beneficiary – including senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), solo parents, and indigenous peoples (IPs) – will get at least P2,000: P950 for a 25-kilogram sack of rice bought at P38 per kilo and the remaining in cash to buy other food essentials.
The DSWD is tasked to identify the beneficiaries and may increase the amount of assistance in some areas depending on its evaluation of its prevailing circumstances.
Romualdez said that like the Presidents’ Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair (BPSF) – a program that brings over a hundred government services directly to the people – that would be implemented nationwide, the CARD program will also go beyond Metro Manila to include the rest of the 250 congressional districts in the Philippines.
At 10,000 beneficiaries per district, the total recipients would be 2.5 million indigent and vulnerable Filipinos, the Speaker said.
He noted that the program was conceived in light of escalating rice prices and the subsequent challenges faced by Filipino consumers, empowering them to gain access to rice at better prices and augment their buying capacity.
It also serves as a countermeasure against hoarders and rice price manipulation, the Speaker added.
Romualdez, one of the principal organizers of BPSF, reiterated that the government is committed to bring more than 60 government services closer to the people by visiting all 82 provinces.
“The Serbisyo Fair truly breathed life into the aspirations of the President to bring so many government programs within the reach of people who may not have the means to avail of these benefits,” he said.
The Grand Launch of the BPSF in the town of Nabua in Camarines Sur was led by the President and was launched simultaneously in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Tolosa town in Leyte in Visayas, and in the Municipality of Monkayo, Davao de Oro in Mindanao.
The BPSF was expected to initially benefit 400,00 plus Filipinos seeking to avail more services offered by various government agencies, with a fund of at least P1 billion.