2.5M poor NCR residents to receive rice, financial aid in next two weeks

At least 2.5 million indigent residents of the National Capital Region (NCR) will receive rice and financial aid in the next two weeks, House Speaker Martin Romualdez said Friday.

Romualdez said the rice and financial aid distribution is part of the Marcos administration's Malaya Rice Project, with each beneficiary receiving P1,000 and 15 kilos of rice worth P500 to P600.

He said the process would take less than a month.

The rice and financial aid distribution will be done in partnership with the region’s 33 lawmakers and Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian.

Each of the House members  will be tasked to identify the 10,000 indigent residents, including senior citizens, solo parents, and persons with disability, in their respective areas.

"This will just be the first round," Romualdez said.

"Once it is successful, and I'm confident that it will be…we'll be able to replicate this and do further successive rounds of this. We'll try to do this in other areas like Metro Cebu, Davao, in the big areas, and then further find out throughout the country, even in the rice producing areas, with the intent of buying palay at the right prices so that we make sure that everyone is afforded quality and affordable rice,” he pointed out.

He then said such a measure needs to be in place to ensure that rice prices will become stable since President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. already lifted the price cap.

“We hope that this [intervention] will stave off the tendency for the prices of rice to come up again," he said.—Llanesca Panti/AOL, GMA Integrated News