The government has expanded its cash and rice aid program to cover Bukidnon province following its successful implementation in Metro Manila and Laguna last week

Speaker Martin Romualdez said the activity coincided with the Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair being held in Bukidnon.

The Cash and Rice Distribution (CARD) program was rolled out in response to a call by President Marcos for the government to create a system meant to give the “poor and vulnerable” families opportunities to enjoy a better quality of life through the legislative districts.

Romualdez, the chief proponent of the CARD program, said some 3,000 beneficiaries were given aid in Bukidnon, in collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The Speaker was assisted for the Bukidnon leg of the CARD program by congressional Reps. Jonathan Keith Flores and Laarni Lavin Roque, Gov. Neil Roque, and Davao de Oro Rep. Maria Carmen Zamora.

The CARD Program was earlier launched in Metro Manila, covering all of its 33 legislative districts, with each having 10,000 beneficiaries for a total of 330,000 residents.

At least 5,000 residents in Biñan City and Sta. Rosa in Laguna were likewise assisted by the CARD program.

The beneficiaries, notably senior citizens, persons with disability, solo parents, and indigenous people, received at least P2,000 worth of cash and rice assistance, consisting of a 25-kilo sack of rice and P1,000 cash to buy other food essentials.

Romualdez said the CARD program would cover the whole country to serve constituents of the 250 congressional districts, reaching out to at least 10,000 beneficiaries per district.

This would translate to 2.5 million indigent and vulnerable Filipinos benefitting from the CARD program. (Manila Standard)