ILOILO – Two northernmost coastal municipalities received 1,000 sacks of rice from the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Western Visayas.
The rice are to be distributed to families when emergencies or disasters such as flooding, typhoon, earthquake, or even fire, strike.
Responding to disaster-displaced people in the two municipalities could be difficult. In Carles, for example, nine days of inclement weather in August isolated residents of island barangays from the mainland.
Because motorboats were not allowed to leave for the mainland to replenish stocks, food supplies dwindled and even stranded tourists went hungry.
Carles and Concepcion each received 500 sacks of rice from the OCD.
OCD sourced the rice from the National Food Authority (NFA), according to Director Jose Roberto Nuñez.
The two towns’ sacks of rice are temporarily stored at the NFA warehouse until they have put up their own suitable storage areas.
Soon the OCD would also be releasing rice to other municipalities as contingency stocks, said Nuñez.
He suggested that municipalities prepare warehouses where to keep the rice and other relief goods.
In 2015 memorandum of agreement, NFA agreed to allot rice buffer stocks that the OCD could use when disaster strikes./PN
