ZAMBOANGA BIGASAN NG MASA
OFFERS ‘UNLI RICE’ TO RESIDENTS
By Manny Piñol
Zamboanga City – Hundreds of city residents lined up as early as 6 a.m. yesterday as the different regional offices of the Department of Agriculture in Mindanao with the support of private rice traders and the NFA opened the DA TienDA Bigasan ng Masa at the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) in the city.
While other agricultural products were also on sale, including dressed chicken, fish, vegetables and fruits like Durian, Mangosteen and Lanzones, the long line was headed to the stall where NFA rice was sold at P27 and P32 per kilo.
Each individual could buy up to 5 kilos at a time and they could come back today or tomorrow to buy more. There was no restriction for members of the same family, including children, to buy 5 kilos each.
The more expensive newly-milled organic rice from nearby Zamboanga Sibugay Province was also on sale but people preferred the cheaper NFA rice which they said is at par in quality with commercial rice.
“Now, they have “Unli Rice,” said Zamboanga Congressman Celso Lobregat referring to a gimmick by restaurants which allow customers to have as many rice servings as they like.
Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabel Climaco profusely thanked President Rody Duterte for dispatching officials of the Department of Agriculture to the city to help address the problem.
The DA Bigasan ng Masa in Zamboanga City will continue until tomorrow, Monday, with more stocks coming from both the NFA and the different regions of Mindanao.
NFA Asst. Regional Director Ruben Manatad said the NFA stocks in Zamboanga City now stands at 100,000 bags which could feed the entire population of the city for 16 days.
With the start of the harvest of palay in nearby provinces, however, the NFA stocks could last for over a month.
The “rice crisis” in Zamboanga City and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawitawi started with the closure of the rice smuggling routes from Sandakan, Malaysia last month.
These areas, called ZAMBASULTA, have relied on smuggled rice for their supplies and neglected their local rice production program.
During a dialogue with officials of the DA on Friday, local officials pledged to revive their rice production programs with the technical support from government agencies.
Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabel Climaco has pledged an initial 1,000 hectares for rice production and demonstration area while Tawitawi Governor Rashid Matba is offering a 6,000-hectare area in Languyan Island as the province rice production area.
Both Sulu and Basilan still have to submit their proposed rice production program and areas to be developed.
(Photos of the Zamboanga Bigas ng Masa launching yesterday were taken by Diane Faith Garcia, OSEC, and Alan Jay Jacalan and Larry Nuestro of DA-AFID.)
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