Governors, Mayors Unite! Food Exchange Network To Serve Country’s Poor

The country’s Governors and Mayors must now lead the establishment of a National Food Exchange Network which would stabilize food supply and prices to protect the poorest in the face of skyrocketing food prices.
This is the only option left as the national government is apparently impervious to suggestions to reactivate the Food Terminal Inc. to handle food repositioning all over the country.
The local government units – provinces, cities and municipalities – who belong to the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, could take the initiative and organize themselves into a National Food Supply Stabilization Network.
The idea is very simple.
1. Governors, City Mayors and Town Mayors could organize a National Food Exchange and Marketing Network (NATFEMN) which would be involved in the production and distribution of at least 5 basic food commodities – rice, meat, fish, vegetables and fruits, and cooking oil, sugar and salt;
2. Based on a National Food Supply and Demand Study, the NATFEMN will determine the volume requirement for each commodity nationwide and the areas which could produce such commodities;
3. Still based on the National Food Supply and Demand Map, the NATFEMN will identify which provinces and cities need supplies for specific commodities;
4. Production Areas could engage their farmers to produce specific commodities based on the actual demands as indicated by the National Food Supply and demand map, thus ensuring that farmers are assured of a market for their produce;
5. Provinces and Highly-Urbanized cities which require food supplies produced by other LGUs could open People’s Food Markets where card-bearing members of the community who belong to minimum-wage earners and the poor sector could have access to food supplies at the lowest price.
The ULAP could engage the National Grains Authority so that existing warehouse facilities in the provinces and even in the big cities could be used as consolidation and distribution centers of the commodities.
In effect, this concept will turn the LGUs into a giant food consolidation and distribution network engaged only in the procurement and sale of basic food commodities with a specific market target, the card-bearing minimum wage earners and the poorest of the poor.
The involvement of the LGUs in an economic enterprise project is allowed under the Local Government Code which gives the LGUs a corporate personality to undertake income-generating activities.
After the Holy Week, I will forward a formal communications with the President of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo, Jr. asking for an opportunity to present NATFEMN to the ULAP.
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!
#KungGustoMaramingParaan!