NFA tightens security in all warehouses after Tacloban City looting

In this Monday, Nov. 11, 2013 file photo, survivors carry bags of rice from a warehouse which they stormed due to shortage of food at typhoon-ravaged Tacloban city, Leyte province central Philippines. Haiyan slammed the island nation with a storm surge two stories high and some of the highest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone. An untold number of homes were blown away, and thousands of people are feared dead. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The National Food Authority has beefed up security in its warehouses in the Visayas, particularly in Leyte, following deadly looting in Tacloban City, last Monday.

NFA Administrator Orlan Calayag said in an interview on Wednesday that eight people were killed when a wall collapsed as “hundreds” of people stormed the agency’s Tacloban warehouse.

“They took more than 100,000 sacks of rice, including 33,000 sacks containing milled rice,” Calayag said. “The rest (of the loot) had palay.”

He said police and soldiers were helping guard the warehouse, but they were no match for the mob.

“We are improving the security arrangements for our other warehouses to prevent a similar occurrence,” Calayag said.

The NFA chief declined to say which facilities were looted, saying that such information might invite more looting.

Earlier, the NFA said it has intensified its rice distribution efforts in the Visayas region, which was badly damaged by super typhoon “Yolanda.”

Calayag said in a statement he has instructed NFA regional offices in Southern Tagalog, Bicol, Central Visayas and Western Visayas to augment rice stocks in Eastern Visayas.

He also called on the Eastern Visayas regional office to secure remaining stocks in its warehouses for immediate release to calamity victims especially in worst-hit Tacloban City.

Calayag said that even before Yolanda made landfall, the NFA has pre-positioned stocks that included 20,000 bags from Cebu to Maasin in Southern Leyte and another 20,000 from Mindoro to Coron in Palawan.

In a memorandum dated Nov. 8, 2013, Calayag authorized the release of an initial 47,500 bags to Department of Social Works and Development.

He said the DSWD has asked the NFA for additional stocks for relief operations in other areas—50,000 bags for Metro Manila; 50,000 for Cebu; 10,000 for the Caraga region; and 10,000 for Bicol.

Calayag said that despite the damage to crops wrought by Yolanda, government rice stocks remain “available, accessible and affordable.”

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