More than 19,000 sari-sari store owners and micro rice retailers across the country have so far received the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP)-cash assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

As of October 2, the DSWD has distributed a total of Php 286.26 million in SLP cash aid to some 19,084 beneficiaries, who were experiencing losses in their business capital due to the price ceiling on well-milled and regular-milled rice, nationwide.

DSWD Assistant Secretary for Strategic Communications and DSWD Spokesperson Romel Lopez noted that both micro rice retailers and sari-sari store owners were each given Php15,000 as cash aid under the Department’s SLP program.

“We are now 78% finished with the distribution of cash aid to the DTI-validated target beneficiaries,” Asst. Sec. Lopez, who is also DSWD spokesperson, said.

The DSWD spokesperson said the Department is expediting the disbursement to complete the SLP-cash aid distribution to the more than 5,400 remaining beneficiaries across the country.

The ongoing cash aid distribution is part of the directive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to assist small rice traders and retailers who were directly affected by the price caps on regular-milled and well-milled rice due to Executive Order No. 39 series of 2023.

The DSWD, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and local government units (LGUs) have been working together to deliver the needed assistance to qualified small and micro retailers in the rice-trading industry. #