Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin is confident that President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s promise of lowering the price of rice to P20 per kilo will soon be achieved.
“Hindi ko naman sinasabing matagal na ma-attain iyan; hindi ko rin sinasabing madaling ma-attain iyan. But I am saying that I am very confident that for as long as government is doing things right to attain these goals, that aspiration may soon be realized. Bakit hindi?” Bersamin said on Tuesday in an interview cited by the Presidential Communications Office.
He stated that the national government is making every effort to increase the levels of production in regions that are recognized for producing rice.
"Those areas that are producing rice, we try to maximize iyong production levels nila. That’s another thing that we are doing now in order to reach that aspiration," Bersamin noted.
Accoding to the Executive Secretary, there are also other factors to consider such as the weather conditions, climate change, and the El Niño phenomenon that could have direct effect on the country's agricultural production.
Bersamin, however, did not mention any timeline as regards lowering the price of rice to P20 per kilo.
During his campaign, Marcos pledged to bring down the cost of rice to P20 per kilo.
He said that achieving this goal depends on fixing the value chain, which is the sequence of steps used to produce a good or service that is sold to customers, with each stage increasing the value of the final good or service.