NINETEEN towns in Negros Occidental got an additional P500,000 rice subsidy from the provincial government.
Those who have already withdrawn their respective rice allocations at NFA Bacolod warehouse are DS Benedicto, Murcia,EB Magalona, Pulupandan, San Enrique, Valladolid, Isabela and Moises Padilla.
Atty. Japhet Masculino, head of the Provincial Agriculture Office, said the additional rice subsidy for the towns only was agreed during the meeting of the mayors with Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson before he issued an Executive Order putting the whole province under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
Earlier, all the 31 local government units of Negros Occidental have been given P1 million rice subsidy each as assistance from the Capitol to their relief operations for their constituents.
Meanwhile, Masculino said NFA rice having bad smell and some bugs could be due to the volume of rice procurement.
“There could be some old stocks that were included unnoticed during delivery. But the National Food Authority assured that they are willing to replace old stock rice,” Masculino added.
He also said that NFA has enough stocks of rice and in fact they have recently milled additional palays at the Provincial Rice Processing Center in Bago City.
NFA he said had 50,000 sacks of running stocks in March and another 50,000 sacks for April on top of their existing stocks. (TDE)