SOME 210 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) received sanitary kits from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Negros Occidental-North recently.
The distribution of these supplies is one of the agency's responses to the prevailing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
The sanitary kits included face masks, face shield, alcohol, Vitamin C tablets, and a sack of rice.
These were given to the ARBs in the towns of E.B. Magalona, Manapla, Calatrava, Toboso, Salvador Benedicto, and Murcia, and cities of Bacolod, Talisay, Silay, Victorias, Cadiz, Sagay, Escalante, and San Carlos.
DAR-Negros Occidental I Legal Assistance Division Chief Leandro Castro, who spoke at the activity, said this "little act of kindness" resonates to others to do the same.
"As this pandemic continues, let us help each other cope through the changes and challenges," he said.
The gift-giving is in-line with the provision stated by the Republic Act (RA) 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act and recent resolutions of the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) on procurement under emergency cases.
It was also a Gender and Development (GAD)-related activity of the agency.
With Negros Occidental still under the Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ), the conducted ceremony included the observance of minimum health protocols set by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Department of Health.
"Such continuous activities conducted by the agency are evidence that despite the inconveniences brought by the pandemic, the service for the Filipino people lives on," DAR-Negros Occidental I said.
The DAR is the lead government agency that holds and implements comprehensive and genuine agrarian reform which actualizes equitable land distribution, ownership, agricultural productivity, and tenurial security for, of, and with the tillers of the land towards the improvement of their lives, it added.