SOS from Sulu!

JOLO NFA RICE STOCKS

GOOD ONLY FOR 5 DAYS

By Manny Piñol

Patikul, Sulu (Aug. 25, Late Post) – People of this town, known as the lair of the dreaded Abu Sayyaf, lined up in front of the National Food Authority Offices here at break of dawn yesterday to be able to buy 5 kilos of government subsidized rice sold at only P27 per kilo.

I and the Department of Agriculture (DA) team, along with PhilRice Executive Director Dr. Sailila Abdulla, flew in from Tawitawi early afternoon yesterday and saw a long line of women and children waiting for their turn to buy NFA rice.

There is available commercial rice in the market which obviously is what is left of the stocks smuggled in from Malaysia via Tawitawi but the price has gone up as well to over P50 per kilo.

Sulu is among the three island provinces, along with the City of Zamboanga, who for so long relied on smuggled rice to supply the needs of its residents.

When the smuggling routes were closed after the private visit of President Rody Duterte to Malaysia last month where he met with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, Sulu, along with Tawitawi, Basilan and Zamboanga City, suddenly ran out of rice supply.

All of this happened during the leans months when the farmers in the mainland were not harvesting their crops yet and the arrival of the NFA and private sector imported rice was delayed.

Working closely with NFA Administrator Jason Aquino, I was able to arrange an allocation of 30,000 bags for Sulu, Tawitawi and Basilan while 100,000 bags of NFA rice were earmarked for Zamboanga City.

Sulu’s problem is that it has virtually Zero Rice production which I believe was caused by the dependence of the area on smuggled rice.

Yesterday, when I visited the NFA office and warehouse in Patikul town, I saw about 5,000 bags of newly unloaded NFA rice stocks.

The NFA manager said it took them three days to unload the 5,000 bags and another three days to unload the remaining bags loaded in a vessel which was provided for by Governor Toto Tan.

Today, I directed Undersecretary Eduardo Gongona, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) National Director who is a retired Commodore in the Coast Guard, to coordinate with Philippine Navy officials for the use of a naval vessel to bring the additional 20,000 bags from Zamboanga City to Jolo.

The DA will also consolidate commercial rice stocks now available in the mainland to be shipped to Jolo to beef up the supply of NFA rice.

The commercial rice would definitely be more expensive given the logistical requirements to ship the stocks from the mainland of Mindanao to Jolo.

Unless the NFA Council acts immediately on the request for a special importation by the private sector of additional rice stocks specifically for the ZAMBASULTA area, things could get worse.

These are the times when government has to show to the people that it is not a lumbering bureaucratic elephant but a shifty Gazelle who knows how to handle and avoid danger.

#KungGustoMaramingParaan!

#BilisanNatinAngGalaw!

(Photos taken by the DA staff of Diane Faith Garcia, Alan Jay Jacalan and Lito Degorio show the NFA rice distribution operations in Patikul, Sulu at about 3 p.m. yesterday.)