Wednesday, April 16, 2008 PB authorizes Gwen to buy 10T bags of rice
THE Cebu Provincial Board approved this week a resolution authorizing Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the National Food Authority (NFA) to buy 10,000 bags of rice.
The passage of the resolution came on the same day the NFA approved the increase of rice allocations for every town, from 20 to 30 bags each, in bid to ease worries about the supply and prices of rice in the province.
In filing the resolution, Cebu Provincial Board (PB) Member Peter John Calderon said such an arrangement falls within the Local Government’s Code list of local functions and responsibilities.
Increase
During an emergency meeting at the Capitol with NFA Cebu Manager Ramon Astilla, Cebu provincial legislators and mayors, Garcia said the 30-bag allocation may still increase depending on the number of poor beneficiaries in every town.
The NFA runs a rice loan program for every local government unit for relief operations in case of calamities or emergencies.
Town mayors in the province earlier expressed apprehension on how to equitably distribute the allotted 20 sacks of NFA rice to their constituents.
They spoke up after the NFA approved a request from Garcia and local officials to allow municipal welfare offices to distribute low-cost rice to the “poorest of the poor.”
The allocation was limited to just 20 sacks a week, which the mayors said was not enough, despite the governor’s plea to base the allocation on each of the town’s population.
Chaos
“This will create chaos,” said Compostela Mayor Ritchie Wagas. “How can we equitably distribute when the allocation is not enough?”
Tuburan Mayor Constancio Suezo III likewise said that 20 bags of rice a week is insufficient for the town’s indigents.
He calculated that the allocation will be good only for 160 poor families, and there are more than 3,000 of them in Tuburan alone.
To satisfy the demand, Tuburan should have at least 390 bags of NFA rice each week, he said.
Suezo also said that six kilos per week for every six-member family is not enough. Even those who aren’t poor are buying NFA rice because of increasing rice prices, he added.
Wagas created a committee to study how the distribution in his town will be done.
Mayors Valdemar Chiong of the City of Naga and Cesar Baricuatro of Dumanjug, meanwhile, are thinking of a per-cluster allocation.
Hands off
Bantayan Mayor Geralyn Cañares feels the same way.
“The local chief executive (here) will keep her hands off in the distribution. The people might say I am politicking if I will meddle,” she said.
In a related development, Cebu PB Member Juan Bolo said that he will pass a resolution requesting Cebu Schools Division Superintendent Serena Uy to look into the theft of NFA rice stocks in Bantayan Island.
When told that about 92 bags of rice were stolen, Bolo expressed alarm, saying the incident was likely an inside job.
Bolo also previously requested Uy to investigate the stealing of five sacks of rice from the stockroom of the Nug-as Elementary School in Barangay Nug-as, Alcoy town.
But Bolo said he has yet to hear from Uy about any development on their request for an investigation.
As part of the Province’s feeding program, Grade 1 pupils get a rice subsidy from the government, Bolo said. (GMD)
