With a very high supply of rice in government stock rooms, a lady lawmaker urged President Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III to use them in restoring a program allowing poor families to buy the commodity at a subsidized price.

Saying it is the government's duty to ensure that Filipinos will not have empty stomachs, Zambales Rep. Maria Milagros Magsaysay said the new administration should sell National Food Authority (NFA) rice at P18.25 per kilo instead of stopping to subsidize its sale following reports of oversupply.

“If Lito Banayo of the NFA is having problems about the excess volume of imported rice, then they should just bring back this rice program,” Magsaysay told a weekly forum in Quezon City.

Earlier, the Aquino administration stopped food-for-school and food-for-work programs.