PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — The office of the National Food Authority (NFA) in Palawan province assured Friday there is enough rice supply to meet the needs of local government units affected by Typhoon Ompong in the province.
Ma. Lewina Tolentino, NFA-Palawan manager, said they have set aside 5,000 bags of rice for Puerto Princesa City and the mainland municipalities of Palawan in case of calamities and emergencies.
She said their buffer stock at the NFA warehouse in the city was from the first shipment of 20,000 imported bags of rice.
“May available kaming stock sa warehouses for calamities or emergencies, tapos sa Coron meron tayong ample stock (We have available stocks in our warehouses for calamities or emergencies and in Coron we have ample stocks too),” Tolentino said.
She said just recently, a mainland municipality withdrew 80 bags of rice from them. They are open 24/7 when there are weather disturbances and other emergencies.
Tolentino said they should have a buffer stock of 3,000 rice bags during calamities.
In island municipalities, the NFA allowed the towns of Coron, Busuanga, Cuyo, and Culion to withdraw 40 bags of rice each as additional allocation for their 55 accredited retailing outlets.
She said the second shipment of Thailand rice imported by the NFA central office will arrive this Sunday to supply the province’s mainland area.
It was supposed to arrive earlier, but the vessel with the shipment to Palawan was prohibited from leaving the port of Batangas due to the typhoon.
Tolentino said if the weather condition turns better, the vessel will resume the loading of rice bags within four days and might arrive in the city in the third week of September.
An update from the Palawan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) as of Saturday morning said the Busuanga island-municipality in the Calamianes Islands Group was already experiencing strong winds.
Linapacan was experiencing heavy rains, while light rains and strong winds were occurring in Culion. Coron, surprisingly, has good weather, according to the update.
PDRRMO chief Jerry Alili said no untoward incident has been reported from the municipalities.
Out of nine municipalities in southern Palawan, only Balabac and Bataraza were experiencing heavy rains and strong winds.
Balabac is where Barangay Mangsee is located, which experienced Typhoon Vinta’s wrath in December 2017.
Aborlan, Narra, Quezon, Brooke’s Point, Rizal, Sofronio Española, and Kalayaan have good weather condition.
In the northern part of the province, Agutaya, Cuyo, and Magsaysay were experiencing strong winds, while Araceli, Cagayancillo, Dumaran, El Nido, Roxas, Taytay, and San Vicente were experiencing good weather if not light rains.
Alili said no preemptive evacuation has been implemented so far in any of the municipalities. (Celeste Anna Formoso/PNA)
