Manila, June 2 -- Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez on Monday announced the city government will start selling PHP20 per kilo rice under the "Benteng Bigas Meron (BBM) Na" program on June 5 with an initial budget of PHP8 million.

"We will launch it on Thursday. Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. will arrive to join the launching. Everybody is looking forward to this. We don't want high food prices to cause burden on our constituents. That's the reason why we should really push for the program," he said in a press conference.

Benitez said he would meet with representatives of the National Food Authority (NFA) to discuss the details of the release of the available rice stocks.

"I was told by the NFA, the inventory in their wareh...