Koronadal City gov’t ensures adequate food supplies
“Adequate food supplies in the city”, this is what the local government of Koronadal wants to ensure amidst the coronavirus (covid-19) outbreak.
To guarantee enough stock of supplies such as rice and agricultural farm products, City Mayor Eliordo U. Ogena met with the National Food Authority (NFA) South Cotabato and the local rice suppliers. He also ordered to put up mobile palengke to make food available for every Koronadaleños and to avoid difficulty and delay in trading as well.
On the other hand, NFA South Cotabato OIC-Provincial Manager Nelson P. Sañada gave the assurance in his statement that the NFA has enough rice allocation for the city while local rice traders also pledge to provide the same.
The city will need about 17,500 bags of rice. Meanwhile, 6,250 bags were already distributed to the 27 barangays as family food packs while the remaining 11,250 are intended for the second tranche of food packs distribution. Also, the mayor reserved an additional 15,000 bags of rice in preparation just in case the pandemic will last longer.
The collaboration of the NFA and the local entrepreneurs was done to help the local traders amidst the current crisis and also to relieve the pressure in the part of NFA considering their vast responsibility in terms of food provision services in the different parts of the region.
During the meeting, NFA assures that they provide well-milled and quality varieties of rice to LGUs.
Meanwhile, the implementation of mobile palengke is underway. It has two (2) types of mobile palengke, the on-site and the online with apps created by the private partners with corresponding delivery fees. The program is expected to be implemented the soonest and once executed, schedule for on-site mobile palengke in every clustered barangays will be observed.
Prior to the latter, Mayor Ogena also conducted a council meeting with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) South Cotabato to discuss anti-hoarding and anti-panic buying of basic and prime commodities including regulation in the control of overpricing among commodities.