NFA-Biliran completes rice distribution for Food-for-School Program

By RODRIGO S. VICTORIA (PIA Biliran)
August 9, 2007

NAVAL, Biliran  –  After more than a month of sacrifice in hauling bags of rice even to the most far-flung elementary schools found in remote barangays in the province of Biliran, yet the agency responsible in distributing a kilogram of rice to every pre-elementary and grade 1 pupils who are beneficiaries of the Food-for School Program (FSP) has finally completed its arduous yet rewarding undertaking.

The Food for School Program is one of the components of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program where the province of Biliran was classified as FSP Priority 2 area.

The national technical working group composed of the Department of Education (DepEd), National Food Authority (NFA), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the National Nutrition Council (NNC) has previously identified 98 elementary schools from fifth to sixth class municipalities in the province of Biliran as beneficiaries of the program.

In a report by Ruben M. Manatad, Officer-In-Charge of the National Food Authority (NFA) here in the province of Biliran dated August 1, 2007, the agency has distributed 190,320 kilo packs of rice under the FSP to 4,758 pre-elementary and grade 1 pupils in the province of Biliran within a period of 40 days.

Based on the report of NFA-Biliran, the municipality of Caibiran has the biggest number of beneficiaries with 1,156 pupils and a total of 46,240 kilos of NFA rice delivered. This was followed by Cabucgayan with 829 pupils with 33,160 kilos; Kawayan with 740 pupils with 29,600 kilos, Biliran with 669 pupils with 26,760 kilos, Culaba with 592 pupils with 23,680 kilos, Almeria with 545 pupils with 21,800 kilos and Maripipi with 227 pupils with 9,080 kilos of NFA rice. The municipality of Naval was not included hence it is already classified as a fourth class municipality.

According to Manatad in an interview, NFA hired private trucks aside from their regular delivery trucks to deliver this food commodity and besides they also assigned personnel who will be responsible in delivering and rationing the NFA rice to the recipient schools throughout the province.

Manatad added that they would even have to hire private individuals or through a single motorcycle for hire or commonly known as habal-habal in ferrying the food commodity to elementary schools where roads are not passable by their vehicles.

In fact NFA-Biliran went beyond target of 432 bags including the 1,900 bags for the FSP out of the 14,000 bags target in the month of July, Manatad said.

“Even with the strict instruction from the higher authorities to limit issuance based only on target because of supply constraints, we cannot help but has to over-issue,” Manatad informed.