The days of free access to the cheaper National Food Authority (NFA) rice will soon be over when the government starts the strict implementation of the family access card scheme in September.
Beginning September 1, only residents with family access cards issued by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) can purchase the NFA rice.
Everyone else will have to buy from other markets where rice costs P7 to P18 more.
Local government units now have to speed up processing the papers of their qualified residents since only Marikina City has been able to comply with the requirements.
Once implemented, only households that earn P5,000 pesos or lower can avail of the NFA rice.
On Tuesday afternoon, some residents of Bagong Silang, Caloocan already staged a protest action in front of the city hall complaining that even now, access to the NFA rice has been extremely difficult due to inadequate and missing supplies.
The NFA explained the issuance of the family access cards should minimize this problem, but they promise to immediately investigate the situation since supply in all areas are strictly monitored and should all be accounted for. Timi Nubla, ABS-CBN News