Community pantries urged: Work with LGUs

MANILA, Philippines — Community pantry organizers should coordinate with local government units (LGUs) to ensure the house-to-house distribution of goods during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Benhur Abalos said yesterday.

“If you want to help, let us create a good system and deliver these goods to houses. This is so people would not go out anymore,” Abalos said in Filipino during the Laging Handa briefing.

Abalos said community pantries could become superspreader events if people leave their homes and line up to receive aid.

Meanwhile, labor group Defend Jobs Philippines yesterday protested a plan by the Joint Task Force COVID Shield to ban humanitarian activities during the lockdown “unless authorized.”

The group plans to mount a mobile community pantry during the lockdown and urged those needing aid to wave red flags outside their homes and those willing to donate to raise green flags.