At least 182 small rice retailers will be given cash aid of PHP15,000 under the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) on Sept. 13-14, the Department of Trade and Industry in Davao Region (DTI-11) said Wednesday.

Romeo Castañaga, DTI-11 assistant director, said the number of recipients was based on their monitoring conducted last week.

“We submitted the list to DSWD since they are the ones providing the SLP. DSWD may also welcome additional beneficiaries within our monitoring next week,” Castañaga said in a press briefing here.

He said the PHP15,000 aid has been calculated as the maximum amount allowed to compensate rice retailers classified as a micro-enterprise for losses incurred for at least seven days from the effectivity of EO 39.

During the first week of the agency’s monitoring, Castañaga less than 50 percent of rice retailers in the Davao Region were found compliant.

“We will have our monitoring this week, and we will see if [the number increased] and if they are compliant,” he added.

Analisa Fabregas, a rice retailer at Toril Public Market in this city who received the PHP15,000 rice subsidy on Wednesday, thanked the national government for the assistance and vowed to abide by Executive Order 39 on the rice price cap.

Under EO 39 which took effect on Sept. 5, regular milled rice was given a price cap of PHP41 per kilo, while the well-milled rice was given a ceiling of PHP45 per kilo. (PNA)