Wednesday, April 16, 2008 92 sacks of rice for preschoolers in Bantayan taken by burglars
SOME 92 sacks of NFA rice intended for first grade and kindergarten pupils were reported stolen from the Bantayan Central Elementary School in Barangay Ticad, Bantayan, Monday afternoon.
Teachers planning to distribute one kilo for each pupil noticed that 92 sacks were missing from the Decentralized Learning Reading Center (DLRC) building of the school.
They were distributing the sacks that morning and it was that afternoon that they noticed some of the sacks were missing, prompting principal Generosa Larida to report the incident at 2 p.m.
This is the second incident involving the theft of NFA rice intended for school children, prompting Cebu Provincial Police Office Director Carmelo Valmoria to direct police chiefs to find out from Department of Education district supervisors in their area where these sacks of rice are being stored.
He expects the police stations to give feedback on his directive.
Valmoria explained that they did not have to do the actual guarding of the rice, only that they could coordinate or advise barangay tanods.
He, however, admitted that they were not informed that there was a considerable number of rice being distributed to the schools.
Provincial Board Member Juan Bolo, for his part, said he will pass a resolution requesting Cebu Schools Division Superintendent Serena Uy to look into the incident.
Uy was earlier tasked to look into a similar incident that happened last April 9 in Barangay Nug-as in Alcoy where five sacks of rice were stolen from the school.
Bolo expressed alarm over the theft, saying the incident was likely an inside job perpetrated by unscrupulous persons who took advantage of the rice crisis.
Initially, school officials believe the theft in Bantayan took place on Sunday as there was a heavy downpour that night.
Larida said that when they arrived, the window of the conference room was already opened.
The sacks of rice were meant for 842 schoolchildren under the government’s Food for School program.
A total of 576 sacks and 40 kilos of rice were distributed over a period since March.
The last delivery of rice was 276 sacks last April 7.
The missing sacks baffled the local police as the school is guarded by three barangay tanods at night. A group of construction workers are also always in the area finishing a renovated school building that got burned sometime last year.
What SPO4 Melquiades Seares Jr., acting Bantayan police chief, wants to know is if the school made a proper accounting of the sacks when they received it from the National Food Authority (NFA).
Seares said that when some parents arrived to claim the rice, they did not have containers with them and asked the teachers for some of the emptied rice sacks.
He added that when the rice arrived, each sack contained repacked rice each containing one kilo per bag.
Seares said school authorities did not weigh the sacks before receiving them. Each sack is supposed to contain 50 kilos of rice.
“Ninety-two sacks is a lot (to be stolen all at once) but the tanods insist they never left the area,” Seares told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
The school’s parent-teacher community association reportedly pays the three tanods to watch over the school grounds.
Seares said the school is surrounded by houses and that it would be difficult not to notice a truck hauling sacks of rice from the school.
He added that when they inspected the DLRC building where the sacks were stored, there were no signs of forced entry.
Seares said the school officials are conducting an inventory of the all the recipients of the rice packs.
Valmoria, for his part, said they have to establish if the sacks were stolen all at once or in several occasions.
In Cebu City, Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador has ordered all 11 police stations to coordinate with the schools under their respective areas of jurisdiction to step up security measures against burglars.
Comendador issued the directive following the two thefts.
While the Cebu City Police Office has not monitored any information about bags of NFA rice given to public schools intended for Grade 1 pupils, Comendador said he sees it necessary to ask school authorities, through the chiefs of police, to place valuable properties in one place.
This way, Comendador said, security personnel will not have to walk from one place to another to check on the storerooms. (MEA/With GMD & JST)
