Vietnam pledges 4,000 bags of rice for Marawi

Vietnam has promised an initial donation of 4,000 bags of rice to the Philippines as part of rehabilitation efforts in Marawi City, which was ravaged by a five-month battle between Islamic State-inspired terrorists and the military.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the pledge was made by Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang during his bilateral talks with President Rodrigo Duterte at the sidelines of the 25th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Da Nang, Vietnam, last week.

Zia Adiong, spokesperson for the Lanao del Sur crisis management committee, said the donation would be enough to cover several weeks of rice needs of some 5,000 evacuees from Marawi City.

He said the Vietnamese donation showed that “our Asian neighbors are inclined to extend assistance to us in order to lighten the burden we carry every day.”

Under the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s ration system, each family gets 25 kilograms of rice good for about six days.

Piñol, in a Facebook post, said Vietnam remained committed to supply the Philippines’ rice requirements. —Karl R. Ocampo and Allan Nawal