By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz, Reporter

HOUSE Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez announced on Tuesday that the government is set to distribute rice discount vouchers next year to benefit 7 million Filipino families or approximately 28 million citizens nationwide.

In a statement, Mr. Romualdez highlighted the program’s goal of making affordable and good-quality rice accessible to more families.

“This is a recalibration of our Cash and Rice Distribution (CARD) Program, and we made it more sustainable by transforming it into a rice discount voucher program so that more families can enjoy buying affordable rice,” he said.

The initiative, known as Bagong Pilipinas Community Assistance and Rice Discount (CARD), will be implemented under the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) program under next year’s national budget.

Once operationalized, the program is expected to allow each family to buy 25 kilograms of affordable and good quality rice monthly, the Speaker said.

He stressed that the program is a response to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s call to bring down rice prices for disadvantaged Filipino families.

At present, the price of local regular milled rice stands at P45.33 per kilo, while well-milled rice is at P50.73 per kilo, according to the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) price watch.

In October, the DA said that it does not expect a surge in rice prices during the holiday season.

The Philippine Rice Industry Stakeholders Movement expects that up to 500,000 metric tons of rice expected to arrive in the Philippines by March next year should lower rice prices.

The House of Representatives and the Senate agreed to fund the program during the Bicameral Committee conference hearings on the P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024.

The additional AICS funds will cover necessary budget allocations for the rice discount vouchers, addressing the immediate financial concerns of low-income families.

Mr. Romualdez also mentioned the program’s use of technology for efficient voucher distribution, tracking, and validation to prevent misuse.

“This program is to show all Filipinos that Congress and the administration of President Marcos Jr. are doing everything to bring down the price of rice for a more significant number of Filipino families,” he said partly in Filipino.

ELECTRONIC cigarettes (e-cigarettes) must be classified as an industry of its own under the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to ensure that its economic activities are monitored and appropriately taxed, a congressman said on Tuesday.

During the House Ways and Means Committee meeting, panel chair and Albay Representative Jose Ma. Clemente S. Salceda pointed out that e-cigarettes are not yet classified under the Philippine Standard Industrial Classification (PSIC) of the PSA and, as such, “could make monitoring of their activities more difficult.”

In light of the Bureau of Customs’ seizure of P1.43 billion worth of allegedly smuggled e-cigarettes at a warehouse in Valenzuela City last October, Mr. Salceda outlined a number of proposals to regulate the e-cigarette or vaping industry. 

First, he said the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) must uphold a Revenue Office on Premise (ROOP) rule on manufacturers by having a designated ROOP at the place of business and come up with a clear regulatory framework and system of registration for e-cigarette companies.

Mr. Salceda said there must be a distinction between manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, and retailers in order to determine the extent of responsibility for ensuring excise tax payment.

Anticipating a market shift, he said tobacco excise tax revenues are likely to continue to decline with the e-cigarette sector taking a bigger share of the market. “We have an industry report that says by 2027, vapes will be one half of the size of the traditional cigarettes,” he said.

Exploring this new industry’s tax potential, the congressman is batting for a declaration of excisable products from port of departure in order to ensure regulatory control over e-cigarette shipments from the outset. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz

LAWMAKERS on Tuesday passed on third and final reading a measure seeking to establish archipelagic sea lanes in Philippine waters and air routes to ensure continuous and unobstructed passage in its territory.

All 258 lawmakers voted in favor of House Bill No. 9034, the proposed Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act.

Once enacted, the law mandates the President to designate the coordinates of the archipelagic sea lanes and air routes for the continuous passage of foreign ships and aircrafts over Philippine archipelagic waters and adjacent seas.

It also ensures the recognition of rights and privileges of foreign vessels and aircraft in Philippine archipelagic waters “under conditions of reciprocity and mutual respect.”

Under the measure, penalties will be imposed on foreign civilian ships and aircraft based on the proposed law, as well as existing fisheries, environmental, customs, fiscal, immigration, sanitary, and other laws.

It added that vessels and aircraft that do not abide by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) “shall not be entitled to exercise the rights, nor be owed the obligations, relative to the regime of archipelagic waters and the right of archipelagic sea lanes passage under the UNCLOS. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz

A BILL seeking to suspend the legislative franchise of Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) for allegedly spreading false information about House Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez and his travel expenses.

“Knowing further that misinformation and misinterpretation can have serious implications most especially in shaping public opinion, and thus create potential social and political divide, the operation of Swara Sug or SMNI is considered a threat to national security and stability,” Party-list Rep. Ramon Rodrigo L. Gutierrez said in House Bill (HB) No. 9710.

SMNI’s legislative franchise was granted in 2019 under Republic Act No. 11422.

On Monday, congressmen adopted House Resolution No. 1499, calling on the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to suspend operations of Swara Sug Media Corp., which operates SMNI.

The move was ignited after host Jeffrey Celiz in SMNI’s Laban Kasama ng Bayan program said that Mr. Romualdez allegedly spent P1.8 billion in travel expenses in one year.

HB 9710 also cited franchise violations committed by Swara Sug amid changes in its corporate structure without Congress approval.

“In 2006, it transitioned from being a non-stock, non-profit corporation to a corporation sole under the Pastor Apollo Quiboloy. However, in 2023… [he] was replaced by one Bro. Marlon Acobo in the corporation sole,” he said, referring to the pastor wanted in the United States for sex trafficking charges.

Last month, the House also adopted a resolution seeking to uphold its “integrity and honor” amid former president Rodrigo R. Duterte’s remarks in another SMNI program, “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa,” against the chamber after they voted to strip his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio, of her office’s confidential funds for next year. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz