The National Food Authority has todate issued a total of 10,425 bags of rice to local government units doing relief operations and assisting victims of typhoon Pedring.
NFA administrator Angelito T. Banayo said the initial report of rice issuance were mostly in Regions 5, 3 and 2. For Region 5, out of the total volume issued, 6,150 bags went to Albay; 500 bags for Camarines Norte; 45 bags for Catanduanes and 10 bags for Camarines Sur.
For Region 3, the Office of the Governor of Bulacan has issued a total of 1,900 bags of rice to the flood-prone towns of Hagonoy, Paombong and San Rafael. The province of Tarlac and Bataan has also respectively issued 50 bags of rice each to the towns of San Manuel and Pilar.
For Region 2, meanwhile, a total of 550 bags of rice were issued to the local government of Isabela and 300 bags for Cagayan. Initial damage to stocks were also placed at P5 million.
Rice requests for relief operations were either paid in cash or credit under a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the local government units and other government agencies doing relief assistance.
Banayo is also in constant touch with the NFA regional directors who are still assessing the extent of damage brought by typhoon Pedring to their rice inventory.
As of todate, only the National Capital Region has submitted an estimated damage to rice stocks in warehouses destroyed by the typhoon. At Metro Food Complex Warehouse No 5 located at Malanday in Valenzuela, the North District Office of NFA has initially reported a damage of 1,500 bags of rice when some seven span of roofing at the warehouse were blown off at the height of the typhoon.
At Kingswood warehouse in Caloocan, some 200 bags of rice were damaged when the warehouse roofing were similarly blown by typhoon Pedring.
To keep updated on the extent of damage to NFA properties, Banayo said the NFA maintains a 24-hour operation of its Central Office and Field Office Operation Center (OPCEN) to receive requests for relief assistance and ensure smooth coordination between NFA warehouses and the agencies withdrawing rice.
Despite the typhoon, as of the third week of September, the overall country’s food security inventory is still high at 2.5 million metric tons equivalent to 75 days supply given the estimated domestic daily requirement of 34,000 metric tons.
Of this volume, the NFA has a total of 1.3 million metric tons while household and commercial has a total of 638,700 and 596,700 MT, respectively . NFA’s rice inventory is equivalent to 52 percent of the total rice stock of the country. Household and commercial stock respectively represents 25 and 23 percent of the total rice inventory of the country.
The National Capital Region has the highest rice inventory with 7 million bags. Region 3 follows with 2.7 million bags; 2.5 million bags for Southern Tagalog; 2.2 for Region 1 and 1.6 million bags for Region 5. Region 2 still has close to a million bags sufficient to meet for almost a month the required 31,000 bags regional daily rice consumption. Director Rex C. Estoperez, Public Affairs Department, NATIONAL FOOD AUTHORITY
