DA to implement food, job program for typhoon victims in Romblon

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Agriculture (DA) will implement later this week a food and livelihood program as part of the government’s relief and rehabilitation efforts for typhoon-battered Romblon.

This was announced yesterday by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, who said that the program would be handled by the DA’s newly formed Task Force Romblon, chaired by Agriculture  Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla and Agriculture  Assistant Secretary Salvador Salacup as vice chairman.

The DA will send to Romblon for sale in local markets 1,000 kilos of bangus, 400 kilos of assorted vegetables, and 1,000 pieces of sardines and other canned goods.

Further shipments of food products would depend on the demand of consumers, Yap said after a meeting on relief and rehabilitation at the DA central office.

Aside from the food shipments, the DA has also proposed to the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) to deliver to Sibuyan Island some P15-million worth of rice for a month-long free distribution to affected residents.

A limit of three kilos per beneficiary-family would be set per day.

For the job component of the project, Yap said the DA would employ workers to build farm-to-market roads in the province through a cash-for-work program and distribute piglets for backyard raising as well as assorted seeds for vegetable planting.

“We will also recommend to the NDCC that the NFA distribute about P15-million worth of rice per month as subsidy to help Romblon residents,” Yap said, adding that “we will be ready with this food-and-livelihood package by Friday this week.”

Fondevilla said that the DA would also proceed with its plan to buy fresh fish from the towns of Tablas and Romblon for distribution and sale in Metro Manila’s bagsakan or drop-off centers and convert the fish from the province into fishmeal and other processed products.

At the same time, Yap said the Pesticide Analytical Laboratory (NPAL) of the Bureau of Plant Industry in Cebu would bring its facilities to Sibuyan Island by Friday to enable the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to do on-site testing of fish and water samples every 12 hours for possible contamination with endosulfan.

Del Monte Philippines had 10 metric tons of endosulfan, a pesticide used to check discoloration in pineapples, onboard the ferry M/V Princess of the Stars which sank off Sibuyan Island in Romblon last June 21.

The BFAR has had to send its fish and water samples to its laboratory in Manila for testing, causing delays in the release of test results.

Last week, Yap distributed seeds and fertilizers to farmers in Romblon as part of the Arroyo government’s program to provide immediate relief to rural folk in 11 regions battered by typhoon “Frank” and help offset agriculture and fisheries losses now exceeding P7 billion.

Yap had also ordered NFA provincial manager Chito Padilla to increase the food agency’s rice distribution volume in the province.

The agriculture secretary had led the distribution of NFA rice and joined local executives in eating fish for breakfast to show consumers that the fish caught off the waters where the ill-fated ship sank is safe to eat.

An inspection of the Odiongan Public Market showed that fish prices have fallen as a result of weak demand touched off by earlier reports that it was not safe to eat fish caught off Romblon.