THE Department of Agriculture on Tuesday kicked off the expansion of the Benteng Bigas, Meron Na!, the flagship food program of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., through local government units, betting that scale, tighter logistics, and steady state procurement can bring affordable rice to vulnerable Filipinos while shoring up farmers’ incomes.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. led the turnover to Pangasinan Gov. Ramon Guico III, Vice Gov. Mark Ronald Lambino, and provincial officials to roll-out and marking the formal expansion of the P20-a-kilo rice program that aims to reach as many as 60 million vulnerable Filipinos by year-end.
In Pangasinan alone, about 177,000 families—around 708,000 Filipinos–are expected to gain access to the subsidized rice. The program targets senior citizens, indigents, farmers, fishers, persons with disabilities, solo parents, minimum wage earners, farmers and fisherfolk—groups that feel price spikes first and hardest.
Benteng Bigas is designed as a two-pronged intervention. On the consumer side, it cushions households from volatile food prices. On the supply side, it frees up space in National Food Authority (NFA) warehouses, allowing the agency to buy more palay from local farmers at better prices and reduce their reliance on middlemen.
“With the FY 2026 nationwide expansion rollout of the P20 ‘Benteng Bigas, Meron Na!’ program through PLGUs, the DA is institutionalizing food security by ensuring affordable rice for vulnerable Filipinos, while empowering the NFA to procure more palay from farmers at fair and sustainable prices,” said Assistant Secretary Genevieve E. Velicaria-Guevarra.
That mechanism is central to the Marcos administration’s food strategy, and by strengthening government procurement and inventory management, and by capacitating LGUs to manage rice distribution, the DA aims to stabilize both farmgate and retail prices—an approach that treats food inflation as a logistics and market coordination problem, not just a production issue.
Lingayen, steeped in history as a landing site during World War II, became the symbolic launchpad for the program’s wider rollout. This time, the landing is economic: a state-backed effort to blunt hunger and price anxiety through scale.
Before January ends, the DA plans to expand the program to Nueva Ecija, and Bohol, as well as Zamboanga City and Davao City—areas chosen for either high rice output or heavy consumer demand.
Funding for the 2026 expansion is estimated at about P14 billion, including roughly P4 billion carried over from last year. This excludes a separate P9-billion allocation for NFA palay procurement, which underpins the program’s supply.
The NFA currently holds 2.2 million 50-kilo bags of freshly milled rice for the initial rollout, plus 700,000 bags of older stocks. Total inventories stand at 451,886 metric tons, or about 9.04 million bags—enough to cover nearly 12 days of national consumption.
“The Benteng Bigas, Meron Na! is more than a slogan—it is the fulfillment of a campaign pledge and the realization of President Marcos’ vision that no Filipino should go hungry and that farmers deserve to fully enjoy the fruits of their hardwork,” Tiu Laurel said.
President Marcos has directed that the program run until the end of his term in June 2028, signaling a shift from short-term price relief to a longer-term, state-led effort to steady rice markets—one sack, and one household, at a time.
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