Mayor Sara Z. Duterte said Thursday that about 200,000 food packs intended to be distributed for the relief goods operations of the city government will be containing NFA (National Food Authority) rice, Mayor Sara Duterte said Thursday.
Mayor Duterte said this is because one of the suppliers for the relief good operations in the city is currently having the difficulty of acquiring a bulk supply of the regular rice being used for the distribution.
In her interview with the Davao City Disaster Radio, mayor Duterte said this made the city government to decide to purchase NFA rice.
“To the beneficiaries who will be receiving (NFA rice), we would want to apologize and ask for your patience on this, because this is the only option for us to fast track the distribution. Because if we are going to wait for their shipment, it will take another week again,” Mayor Duterte said.
She added that with the NFA rice on a cheaper price, there really is a difference in the quality as compared to the usual special class of rice being used on the relief goods operation.
Duterte however, assured that the rest of the suppliers are using the special class of rice for the food packs. The city mayor previously said there are four suppliers tapped by the city government for the relief goods operations.
“Only this (one supplier) has the NFA rice because there is a delay and they do not have their usual rice supply to be repacked,” she said, adding that the city government cannot distribute food packs without rice on it as it is one of the most needed basic commodities.
The city government is targeting more than 350,000 grocery food packs to be distributed to the families in the different barangays of the city on its first round of operation.
Mayor Duterte said out of the 182 barangays, there are already 58 barangays who received the food packs, and the still on the process of distribution.
“The distribution will still continue until we complete the 350,000 and then we will continue to the next round of distribution,” she said.
