SUBSIDY. Rice retailer Terie Celestial shows the PHP15,000 subsidy she receives on Thursday (Sept. 28, 2023). Department of Social Welfare and Development Sustainable Livelihood Program Antique provincial team leader Noli Valenzuela said in an interview Friday (Sept. 29, 2023) they had already released economic recovery subsidies to a total of 339 rice retailers in the province as of Sept. 28. (PNA photo by Annabel Consuelo J. Petinglay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – A total of 339 rice retailers in Antique have received government aid for complying with Executive Order (EO) 39 that sets a cap on the selling price of regular milled and well-milled rice starting early this month.
The latest release on Thursday benefited 148 recipients, including Suzette Tumangday from the municipality of San Remigio, who got PHP15,000 cash assistance.
“The subsidy is a big help in my rice retailing business because I could buy new stocks,” she said in an interview on Friday.
Tumangday said before the EO was issued, she already had stocks at her sari-sari store at the San Remigio Public Market. Well-milled rice (WMR) was sold at PHP47 per kilogram.
“With Executive Order 39, we are only allowed to sell the well-milled rice for PHP45 per kilogram, we will really be losing our capital,” she said.
The subsidy granted under the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will be for the purchase of her rolling stocks.
Another recipient, Terie Celestial, started her sari-sari store with rice retailing when she returned to Antique at the height of the health pandemic through the Balik Probinsya program.
“Our sari-sari store with rice retailing is right now our only source of livelihood that we really need the subsidy,” she said.
DSWD SLP Antique provincial team leader Noli Valenzuela said they released aid to 339 rice retailers or sari-sari store owners engaged in rice retailing in the province as of Sept. 28.
“We have already released economic recovery subsidies on three tranches starting on Sept. 14,” Valenzuela said in an interview. (PNA)
