Sen Cynthia Villar Clarifies She Has No Plans to Ban Unli Rice Promo

Senator Cynthia Villar made a clarification this Thursday, June 15 on her earlier statements about unlimited rice promo being offered by some famous restaurants in the Philippines. This is after tons of netizens voiced out their strong objection against her supposed plan to ban unli rice, and urged the Filipinos to eat more vegetables instead.



“I think we should learn how to eat vegetables because it’s healthier. Kasi sasabihin mas mura ang rice sa vegetables eh ang mahal naman magpagamot ng diabetes. Ipagbawal na yang unlimited rice, kasi nagkakasakit tayo gawa ng unlimited rice na yan.” Villar, chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, said in the senate hearing, Wednesday, June 14.

Apparently, Sen. Cynthia Villar reacted on the earlier statements of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel 'Manny' Piñol, who said that the government may need to import rice by the end by 2018. According to him, the projected production for 2017 is 12 million metric tons, which is slightly smaller than the expected rice consumption of 12.1 million metric tons.

But this Thursday, Sen. Cynthia Villar assured the public that she will not file to ban restaurants in serving unlimited rice to their customers. Instead, she emphasized that it was only a suggestion, and that she was only voicing out her concern on the health hazard of eating too much rice. This is after her name and 'unli rice' went trending on Twitter.



“I am not planning to make a law banning ‘unli rice’; not at all. I just voiced out my concern that eating too much rice is one of the main causes of high blood sugar that leads to diabetes. But, of course, I cannot prevent people from eating unlimited amount of rice. It is their choice.” Sen. Cynthia Villar, wife of former Senator Manny Villar, told reporters.

Contributed by Abner Esteno