Senate bill seeks to punish restaurants not serving half-a-cup rice

Some Filipinos may be having hard time sticking to a "low-carb" diet because some restaurants don’t serve half-a-cup of rice. But a bill filed at the Senate may just be the solution to such a situation.

 

Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has filed Senate Bill 1863, or the "Anti-Rice Wastage Act of 2013," seeking to impose fines on establishments that refuse to serve half-cup rice orders.

 

The goal is to lessen rice wastage, the grain being the Filipino's staple food, Marcos noted in a statement Sunday.

 

“This measure will considerably reduce rice wastage on these establishments by letting... customers... order just the right amount of rice that they can consume," the senator said.

 

Citing numbers from the Food and Nutrition Research Institute, Marcos said each Filipino wastes three teaspoons of rice every day, equivalent to some P23 million or P8.28 billion a year.

 

Under the Senate bill, establishments refusing to serve half-cup rice orders will be slapped with a fine of P20,000 for the first offense, P50,000 for the second offense and P100,000 for the third offense.

 

Two congressmen, Butil Rep. Agapito Guanlao and Batangas Rep. Mark Llandro Mendoza, earlier expressed intention to file a counterpart bill at the House of Representatives.

 

The Marcos bill still a long way to go through committee and plenary debates and voting before it can be passed by the Senate.

 

The Philippines aims to attain rice self-sufficiency by the end of 2013. – Andreo Calonzo/VS, GMA News