Manila: The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday vowed to tighten market monitoring and intensify its actions to address food inflation. This came after the country's inflation hit 1.8 percent in December 2025, with food and non-alcoholic beverages among the major drivers, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

According to Philippines News Agency, food inflation was driven by prices of rice and vegetables, with a recorded increase of 1.2 percent in December from 0.3 percent in November last year. In a statement, DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. attributed last month's faster food price movements to holiday demand and the effects of the inclement weather on food production and supply.

'This means the DA must move faster - tightening market monitoring, accelerating production, swiftly deploying available stocks, and expanding safety-net support like the PHP20 rice program to blunt price spikes,' he said. The DA vowed to speed up the expansion of the PHP20 per kilogram rice program under the Marcos administration's 'Benteng Bigas Meron (BBM) Na' to reach 15 million households or 60 million Filipinos nationwide.

Tiu Laurel said the government will soon expand its BBM Na rollout to include low- to middle-income families. As of Monday, the prevailing price of premium or 5-percent broken imported rice in Metro Manila is PHP50/kg, with prices ranging from PHP48 to PHP52/kg, according to the DA-Bantay Presyo (price watch). The prevailing price of imported well-milled rice, meanwhile, is pegged at PHP46/kg, and PHP42/kg for imported regular-milled rice. For local rice, the premium variety sells for PHP50/kg; well-milled for PHP45/kg; and regular milled for PHP40/kg.