MANKAYAN, Benguet March 27 – The municipal government is stockpiling some 1,000 cavans of rice that will be used to augment the existing supply of traders that could be used to provide relief assistance to the people who have been heavily impacted by the ongoing implementation of the enhanced community quarantine purposely to fight the dreaded Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).
Mayor Frenzel A. Ayong said that the local government is on the process of procuring some 500 cavans of rice from the National Food Authority (NFA) that will serve as the town’s buffer stock to augment the existing rice supply of traders and the residents that will guarantee food security in the municipality during the quarantine period that is expected to be lifted by April 15, 2020.
Further, he said that the town’s 12 barangays have also placed similar orders that reached some 400 cavans of rice to provide adequate rice supply to the residents in their areas of jurisdiction, especially for the needs of the vulnerable and marginalized sectors for them to be able to survive the prevailing crisis in the country caused by the rapid increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Earlier, the local government procured some 100 cavans of rice from rice traders in Cervantes, Ilocos Sur to ensure the stable supply of rice in the municipality at the height of the implementation of the quarantine period.
“Our local traders and residents have available supply of rice but we want to make sure that we will be able to provide some of the basic needs of our constituents when the situation worsens in the coming days,” Mayor Ayong stressed.
He disclosed that the combined procured rice supply will probably last for over a month considering that based on the initial inventory that had been conducted by the local government, rice traders in the municipality and residents have their initial rice supply that could last for a certain period and that the same will be augmented by the municipality and the barangays through the stockpiled supply.
According to him, the local government is awaiting the delivery of a portion of the procured supply since the same will be delivered in tranches to prevent the occurrence of artificial shortage of rice in the municipality.
Ayong assured the residents in the municipality that traders have sufficient supply of food items and basic needs that could be procured provided that only one member of the household will be allowed to go out of their homes to purchase the things that they need, thus, the need for them to fully cooperate with the said policy to prevent the rapid spread of the deadly virus.
He claimed that people from the different barangays have been cooperative to the imposed curfew hours, the restriction on their movement and the scheduling of the operation of the market and other establishments providing basic necessities of the people, thus, it shows the people still display the discipline that should always prevail during these trying times to help the country win the long battle against the highly contagious disease.
By Hent
Photo lifted from the Department of Agriculture website