THE National Food Authority (NFA) no longer denies and admits that they can only supply about 10,000 metric tons of rice to several Kadiwa Centers for the government’s “Bigas 29” program.
This falls far short of the 60,000 metric tons demanded by Kadiwa Centers each month.
Nenita Doquitom purchased rice at P29/kg only once at a Kadiwa Center in the Department of Agriculture office.
She shared that she was prohibited from buying more because she did not qualify or belong to the vulnerable sectors prioritized to purchase rice at the subsidized price.
She insisted that life is difficult for her too, so she should also be allowed to buy the cheap rice offered by Kadiwa.
“It should be fair for everyone, not just single parents or 4Ps because everyone eats. To be able to buy cheap rice. It’s really difficult especially when you only have daily wages,” according to Nenita Doquitom, Buyer.
By eight in the morning on Friday, the cheap rice stock at the Kadiwa in the Bureau of Animal Industry was sold out.
According to some DA employees, they only had 166 bags of 3-kilo rice supply for the day.
They said they are now stricter because those who have already received 3 kilos of rice cannot repeatedly join the line.
Anyone holding two identification cards of different individuals must show an authorization letter.
The National Food Authority (NFA) admitted that they can only provide nearly 10,000 metric tons or over 140,000 bags for the upcoming nationwide rollout of Bigas 29 in July.
“Are our stocks enough for our fellow citizens? No, actually that’s just initial. The DA will source rice, they will source rice to sustain this,” stated Larry Lacson, Administrator, NFA.
This means they need to find other sources of supply for rice sales.
This is far from the 60,000 metric tons of rice needed to be supplied to Kadiwa Centers every month.
“It’s a challenge because initially it’s just 10 Kadiwas, next month it will be 20 then it will increase. Then NFA won’t be the sole supplier of all that,” Lacson added.
The rice supply sold at Kadiwa comes from NFA’s aged stocks.
They said it can still be consumed by people, but they can’t guarantee if it’s turning yellow because they don’t have a color sorting machine.
DA Spokesperson Asec. Arnel de Mesa also mentioned guidelines are set for Bigas 29 scheduled to be released next week.
They might increase the number of Kadiwa Centers selling aged rice.
They also aim to reach 30% of the vulnerable sector or 6.9 million families by the end of the year.
“There will be availability for the vulnerable sector. Continuously until the end of the year,” stated Asec. Arnel de Mesa, Spokesperson, DA.
