MANILA, Philippines — A farmers’ cooperative in Cavite is distributing and selling agricultural products at a much lower price in a bid to help people affected by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) placed over Luzon and other parts of the country.
“The Palangue [Agrarian Reform Cooperative] (PARC), aside from its vegetable crops also supplies rice to Cavite cooperatives and other nearby Luzon areas with very minimal interest to support those areas, who at the moment cannot avail of their basic necessities, due to ECQ,” Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Cavite Provincial Agrarian Reform Program Officer (PARPO) James Arthur Dubongco said in a Tuesday release.
The PARC store is open and ready to supply basic needs in Luzon and other parts of the country affected by the ECQ, PARC manager Joselito Tibayan said.
“The cooperative understands the people’s plight that most of them are unable to make money because of the quarantine period and [COVID-19-scare] which has affected their livelihood situation. In response to their needs, we decided to reduce our profits during this crisis,” Tibayan said.
PARC has so far sold 500 kilograms of corn, 1,000 kilograms of wheat, 1,000 kilograms of tomatoes, 1,500 kilograms of tobacco, 420 kilograms of rice, as well as 9,580 kilograms of potable water or 1,134 containers (20 liters per container) and 1,500 pieces of patola per week in various areas.
Tibayan added that the cooperative also has a water refilling station funded under the Village Level Farm Enterprise Development (VLFED) project of the DAR.
Other than lowering its prices, PARC has also donated 25 sacks of rice and P25,000 Community Development Fund to Barangays 1 and 2 of Naic as part of the relief effort. Three kilograms of rice were also donated to 167 regular members.
Nine senior citizens, meanwhile, have received P2,000 each from PARC as cash aid for food, medicine, and other necessities.
PARC is just one of the Cavite Agrarian Reform Beneficiary Organizations (ARBOs) who have initiated the move, Dubongco noted.
The DAR on Friday announced that it was mobilizing around 150,000 farmers to ensure food security during the ECQ by seeking the authority to grant ARBOs quarantine passes so they can deliver food and other necessities to areas critically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Departments of Agriculture and Interior and Local Government have meanwhile coordinated to “enhance” checkpoint protocols to allow the “unhampered movement” of agri-fishery products amid the ECQ.