Tawi-Tawi needs vessel to ship 38,000 bags of rice from Iloilo amid COVID-19 pandemic

COTABATO CITY – The provincial government of Tawi-Tawi and the National Food Authority (NFA) are in need of a large vessel to ship 38,000 bags of rice from Iloilo as buffer stock in the island province amid lockdowns enforced in the prevailing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The office of Tawi-Tawi Governor Mang Sali and the state-run grain agency has started negotiation for an emergency purchase of such vessel, NFA Provincial Manager Lei H. Israel Arsad announced Saturday.

Gov. Sali, currently undergoing self-quarantine for 14 days, was represented by lawyer Jet Lim in the urgent meeting meant to “make sure that rice supply will be available for (Tawi-Tawi) constituents,” Arsad said.

Arsad posted in Facebook some photos of 850 bags initially shipped to Tawi-Tawi on Thursday and Friday by small boats, M/V Kirsten Trisha and M/L J. Dayang, respectively.

“These government buffer stocks will only be released to different LGUs (through social welfare field offices) for their relief missions in this time of crisis,” she said.

Arsad said they expected to hear “from our contractor (bigger vessel supplier) regarding (our quest) early next week.”

She and other leaders in Tawi-Tawi have acknowledged the representations to higher authorities by the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) for the supply of rice from Luzon and Visayas for their province and the adjacent Basilan and Sulu island provinces.

Last week, MinDA Chairman Manny Piñol announced having asked the national government to cause the shipment of substantial rice supplies from Iloilo and other rice-producing provinces to Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi (BASULTA) in view of the lockdowns on sea routes from Sabah, Malaysia.

“BASULTA people have traditionally been dependent to rice supply from Sabah,” Sec. Piñol saying, explaining that the three island component provinces of BARMM are nearer to the Malaysian state than many mainland Mindanao areas. The price of rice from Sabah is also lower than those in Philippine markets, it was learned.

Sec. Piñol, who is President Duterte’s “point man for BARMM,” said he attended early this month the World Islamic Economic Forum in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. Kota Kinabalu covers Sabah.

Due to Malaysian government’s reports about a spike of COVID-10 cases among Malaysians, Sec. Pinol underwent 14-day quarantine at his family farm in Kidapawan City starting March 10 or day upon arrival from Kota Kunabalu.

“So far, health workers found no flu-like symptom in me,” Pinol said in a Facebook post March 17. (Ali Macabalang)

(Attached photo shows three trucks that loaded 850 bags of rice shipped by two small vessels in Tawi-Tawi on Friday and Thursday under initial arrangements between the provincial government and the National Food Authority. The province’s NFA manager announced a bi-party plan to purchase a bigger vessel to ship 38,000 bags from Iloilo.)