Tuesday, June 10, 2008 Rice concerns top Tuesday's council agenda
THE Davao City council will act on the proposed solutions to rice crisis in Tuesday's regular session.
Prior to the end of the special session called for by Acting Mayor Sara Z. Duterte last Wednesday, the body agreed to craft resolutions, which will be presented on Tuesday in order to troubleshoot the problems identified during the six-hour discussion.
Among the identified problems are the inadequate number of National Food Authority (NFA) outlets, and the lack of rolling stores to reach far-flung barangays.
Davao City has only 253 existing NFA outlets catering to its 1.3 million population spread over 2,440 square kilometers of land.
The City Council intends to pass a resolution to allow the city to apply for additional NFA retail outlets and possibly provide trucks for rolling stores as private individuals cannot apply for NFA outlets.
Arlene Morpos, head of the Livelihood Development Unit of Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Southern Mindanao, explained that it is the national office of DSWD that approves permits of NFA grains outlets.
"This is under the 'Hunger Mitigation Program' of the National Government implemented by DSWD in cooperation with the National Nutrition Council (NNC)." Morpos said, adding that the NNC provides a target number per area based on the nutrition statistics.
Since Davao City is only a "Priority 3" area, only 80 more grains outlets were allocated to augment the existing 253.
Those self-funded or applied for by private entities are not accommodated since NFA retail is a government program.
The City Council will also initiate a meeting of concerned sectors to set a ceiling price for commercial rice, thus keeping traders free from any abuse.
Metro Davao Grains Traders President Johnny Loyola suggested this idea to regulate the skyrocketing prices of commercial rice.
Loyola said if a ceiling price is set, the people will clearly know when the price is too much and can report to authorities for overpricing. (GLP)
