DSWD, LGUs urged to buy agri-fishery products, rice from coops

FILE: A private group helps farmers in Benguet with their livelihood by buying their vegetables and donating these to residents in Metro Manila who were affected by the extended enhanced community quarantine. (PNA photo by Robert Oswald P. Alfiler)

MANILA – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the local government units (LGUs) have been enjoined to purchase fresh agri-fishery products and rice from farmers cooperatives and associations (FCAs) for the distribution of food packs to families affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

The latest call was contained in Resolution 35-A approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a virtual press conference aired on state-run PTV-4 on Thursday.

Roque said the IATF-EID supports the directive to DSWD and LGUs to directly purchase “fresh agri-fishery products and rice” for the food packs.

The entire country has been placed under an enhanced community quarantine to stop the further transmission of Covid-19.

Metro Manila, Laguna, and Cebu City will shift to modified enhanced community quarantine from May 16 to 31 because these are deemed high-risk areas.

Moderate-risk and low-risk areas nationwide will be under general community quarantine.

In April, the IATF-EID also encouraged LGUs to include sugar in the relief packages that will be distributed to their constituents amid the Covid-19 crisis.

Apart from the food packs, around 23 million poor families will also receive emergency cash subsidies ranging from PHP5,000 to PHP8,000 based on the regional wage rates for April and May period.

The government has repeatedly assured the public that there is enough food supply amid the community quarantine in the country.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) was assigned in April to chair the National Task Force’s Task Group on Food Security created by the IATF-EID to ensure food security amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

The projected supply by the end of December 2020 will be 94 days for rice, 234 days for corn, two days for fish, six days for vegetables, and 253 days for chicken, according to the adjusted DA report.