Rice has been and still is the staple food for Filipinos. We eat rice for breakfast, lunch, and supper; sometimes even in-between meals called pamamahaw. With the price of rice at around P50 per kilo, our culture of eating rice has to change drastically because belts must be tightened figuratively and literally.
At the media launch of Buwan ng Kalutong Pilipino or Filipino Food Month held at the newly- restored Metropolitan Theater in Manila this week, the first question raised was when will the P20 per kilo rice happen, as promised by the sitting president and concurrent Secretary of Agriculture Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. during his campaign. “Malapit na,” (soon) as Marcos said in his speech, and was the answer given by Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary Zamzamin Ampatuan a panelist at the launch, which DA led.
“Malapit na” should be a sincere answer, as it gives hope to the people who pray that rice, as staple, becomes affordable to all. This is not election period where some candidates for public office give empty promises just to win the seat of governance. This matter is serious business especially when the minimum daily wage is at P350 to P470 in CALABARZON as per National Wages and Productivity Commission.
Nine months since Marcos Jr. became President and DA Secretary is long enough to have proven that he could do what he promised during the campaign. Filipinos are said to be patient and resilient. But like the question of one reporter at the launch, how long do we still need to wait for P20 a kilo rice? We can't eat rice alone. We need viand to go with it. We can't keep telling people to have salt for rice, because salt itself is in short supply and ludicrously expensive as well.
Now that the staple food is almost becoming unaffordable to a lot of Filipino families, we can safely say that indeed, the Golden Age has come, when everything we consume is priced like gold.