Manila, Feb. 28 -- Speaker Martin Romualdez on Friday commended the government's recent initiatives to make rice more affordable, as he stressed the importance of sustained efforts to maintain these gains.

Romualdez said one of the government's key initiatives is the Department of Agriculture's (DA) declaration of a food security emergency, which allowed the release of National Food Authority's (NFA) rice buffer stocks to stabilize retail prices.

He also noted that the DA set a maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) of PHP49 per kg. for imported rice starting in March, while NFA rice is made available at PHP35 per kg. for low-income households.

The DA confirmed that at least 150,000 metric tons of NFA rice - half of its total 300,000 me...