Leyte town sells rice at P20 per kilo to fulfill Marcos vow

Leyte. INQUIRER FILES

TACLOBAN CITY — A town in Leyte is selling rice at P20 per kilo in a bid to deliver the promise made by President Marcos when he was gunning for the country’s top post two years ago.

But Mayor Bernandino Tacoy of Matag-ob town, Leyte said the rice sold at a cheaper price is not for everyone.

“Unfortunately, we are only targeting the poorest people of Matag-ob,” he said in an interview.

Matag-ob is the first municipality in Eastern Visayas to sell rice at P20 kilo.

Tacoy said this was achieved through a program of the municipal government in coordination with I-unlad Kabuhayan Foundation, a Manila-based private organization, which assists farmers in the country increase their production by providing organic fertilizers.

He said the foundation provided a loan of five bottles of fertilizers to each of the more than 400 farmers in the town.

“In turn, (each) farmer who had secured loans from the I-unlad Kabuhayan Foundation is to give five kilos (of rice) to the foundation as their payment (for the fertilizers),” Tacoy said.

The rice collected from the farmers was then sold at P20 per kilo.

“This is in response to the promise of our President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to sell rice at P20 per kilo,” the town mayor said.

READ: Bongbong Marcos says P20/kilo rice possible: ‘May chance lagi yan’

Last May 8, the municipal government and the I-unlad Foundation were able to sell rice at P20 per kilo to the more than 1,500 poor families of Matag-ob, about 105 km away from Tacloban City.

Each of the buyers was only allowed five kilos of the premium rice, Tacoy said.

The mayor hoped that they could sustain the program with the continued assistance of the I-unlad Kabuhayan Foundation.

Matag-ob has more than 1,000 registered farmers tilling more than 1,400 hectares of farm lots. Last year, Matag-ob produced 4,122.38 tons of palay throughout the year.