COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Officials on Saturday tasked agriculturists to focus on increasing production of short-term food crops as contingency in case of A prolonged anti-coronavirus quarantine.
Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. said Saturday he has directed the Provincial Agriculture Office to estimate how much food crops local farmers can produce in the next four weeks as well as their projected retail prices.
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“This is a contingency preparation. We are also focused on preventing undue increases of food supplies being sold in commercial establishments and in public markets,” Adiong said.
Prices of fish from the Lake Lanao are also being monitored, according to Adiong.
“We are anticipating constraints on transport of commercial goods from outside so we have to ensure the adequacy of food and fish supplies from local producers while ensuring the continuity of inbound shipment of supplies, ” Adiong said.
North Cotabato Gov. Nancy Catamco told reporters Saturday she has tapped barangay officials to help ensure the productivity of local farmers during a quarantine in the province.
"For now our assessment is that there will be enough food in the province in upcoming weeks, beyond the 14-day quarantine that started this week. Just the same, we need accurate estimates by our provincial agriculturist," Catamco said.
Lanao del Sur covers 39 towns and more than 90 barangays in its capital, Marawi City. North Cotabato has 17 towns and covers more than 40 barangays in Kidapawan City, the provincial center.
Local government units in some towns in Maguindanao, a province of the Bangsamoro region, went viral on social media for their “bayanihan” style COVID-19 containment campaigns.
In upland Upi town, a checkpoint manned by soldiers, policemen, barangay residents and health workers led by physician Carmelo Esberto check all passersby.
The main frontliners in Upi — personnel of the municipal government, the Regional Police Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and the Army’s 6th Infantry Battalion — first explain politely to passersby the need for them to comply with municipal measures against the novel coronavirus,
The LGU of Datu Blah Sinsuat, a small seaside town in Maguindanao, has started stockpiling rice in their municipal government operations center as a contingency.
Volunteers on Saturday transported five tons of rice the town bought from an outside supplier to a warehouse in the town proper of Datu Blah Sinsuat.
Members of the municipal council and local police personnel have been going around the 13 barangays in Datu Blah Sinsuat for the past three days to monitor the availability of food in local stores and to educate constituents on the prevention of coronavirus infection.