SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — The National Food Authority (NFA) Antique provincial office is expecting an additional 30,000 bags of imported rice to be delivered this September.
NFA Antique provincial manager Marianito B. Bejemino said in an interview on Saturday that the additional 30,000 bags of imported rice were supposed to arrive last month in time for the lean months.
“The imported rice already belong to the second tranche of importation for Antique,” Bejemino said.
Antique received 10,000 bags of Thailand rice during the first tranche in July. The province’s share was used for the supplemental feeding program (SFP) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and released to accredited rice retailers.
“In the first tranche, there were 3,256 bags of rice that were delivered to the different day care centers in the province for the supplemental feeding program implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development,” Bejemino said.
He added that in the second tranche, they have allocated 3,252 bags of rice for the supplemental feeding program.
Melrose Amaran, head of the DSWD in Antique, said there are 675 day-care centers in the province with 21,687 children, who are the target beneficiaries for the 120 days feeding program.
“The actual beneficiaries as of September 1 are 9,356 children,” she said.
Bejemino said 74 accredited retailers were provided with rice from the first tranche so they could sell cheaper rice to consumers.
“We allocated 30 bags of rice to our accredited retailers who sold inside the market per week and then 20 bags to those who sold outside the market,” he said.
The accredited rice retailers selling right in their barangays were allocated with 10 bags per week.
Meanwhile, Bejemino said they suspended the delivery of rice to four retailers for a week due to unreasonable depletion of stocks.
“Our monitors were surprised because of the fast depletion of the rice,” Bejemino said.
He warned other retailers to abide with the policy of the NFA and think of their corporate social responsibility otherwise they would also be suspended and penalized. (Annabel Consuelo Petinglay/PNA)
