CDO residents endure cold nights, chilly mornings and hot days to buy ₱20 per kilo rice
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 15 April) — To avail themselves of the ₱20-per-kilo rice under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s “Benteng Bigas, Meron Na” program, hundreds of low-income residents, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and minimum wage earners have been spending cold nights and chilly mornings on the pavement while waiting outside the National Food Authority (NFA) office in Sitio Baloy, Barangay Cugman here.
President Marcos rolled out the ₱20-per-kilo rice initiative to fulfill a campaign promise of providing affordable, subsidized rice to vulnerable sectors.
By daytime, those queueing outside the NFA have to contend with the heat. The City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office has warned residents of “extreme caution” as the forecasted heat index in the city on April 15 and 16 are 36 degrees Celsius.
Demly Sobrepeña, 74, a retired mechanic, said he had been waiting in line since 2 p.m. on Monday along with an estimated 700 residents outside the NFA office.
“It’s 3 a.m. now (Tuesday) and we are still here waiting for the NFA office to start selling,” Sobrepeña said. “If we leave the line, somebody will take our place,” he said.
Resty Calope, 34, a carpenter from Barangay Puerto, kept watch on the NFA iron gates as he stood beside Sobrepeña, braving the chilly early morning on Tuesday.
“We patiently wait here, endure the cold night, and we get only 10 kilos. Two days from now, we will be back,” he said.
Calope, who said he is a regular buyer, added that they are allowed to purchase 10 kilos of rice per week, or up to 40 kilos a month, from the NFA.
“It’s really cheap compared to commercial rice. That’s the reason why many of us keep coming back,” he said.
The cheapest rice in the market is around 58 pesos per kilo so ten kilos would cost ₱580 compared with the P200 Calope and the rest are paying for the same number of kilos.
Calope said the 10 kilos of rice would last only two days for his family of five, after which he would return to buy more.
At 5 a.m., the long line began to stir as security guards opened the NFA gates, allowing 10 people in at a time.
Inside the NFA compound, a lone NFA employee checked identification cards and issued coupons to buyers, who then had to walk to the warehouse to claim their rice.
Residents said only 500 coupons are distributed each day, after which the gates are closed and another batch of buyers line up again by midday for the next day’s distribution.
The Cagayan de Oro City Council has raised concerns about the well-being of residents sleeping on pavements and is pushing for the NFA to distribute rice at the barangay level.
Councilor Marlon Tabac, president of the city barangay association, said the centralized distribution system has caused inconvenience and hardship among marginalized sectors, who must endure long waits just to secure cheap rice.
Eduardo Timaan, 57, a retired government employee who does odd jobs in the barangay, explained that as long as cheap rice is sold at the NFA warehouse in Sitio Baloy, he and his wife, Fe, will continue to join the long lines. The couple has five children, the eldest of whom is 15.
“Rice is a staple food. If we do not have money to buy meat, fish, or vegetables, we can make hot porridge out of it so my children will not be hungry,” Timaan said. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
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