De Guzman, Espiritu: P20/kilo rice is ‘election gimmick,’ ‘tokenistic’

Partido Lakas ng Masa senatorial candidates and labor leaders Leody de Guzman (left) and Luke Espiritu (right) speak to the media in a chance interview after their miting de avance at the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila on Friday night, May 9, 2025. — Photo by Jason Sigales/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) senatorial candidates and labor leaders Leody de Guzman and Luke Espiritu criticized the administration’s P20-per-kilo rice program as an “election gimmick” and an example of “tokenism.”

Rice being priced at P20 was a key campaign promise by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the 2022 national elections.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) launched the initiative last May 1 but halted the roll out for the election period.

“It’s clear. It’s only an election gimmick. That cannot be sustained. They’ll kill farmers because they’re not really developing the farming sector,” De Guzman said in Filipino during a chance interview after their miting de avance in Manila on Friday night.

For his part, Espiritu said, “That’s what we call tokenism. Marcos did not really change the most fundamental problem of why the price of rice is high and why we import rice from other countries: because we still neglect agriculture.”

READ: DA temporarily halts P20/kilo rice program, to resume on May 13

De Guzman and Espiritu further pushed for the government to increase support for farmers by subsidizing pesticides, seedlings and fertilizers./das