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THE OFFICIAL E-NEWSLETTER OF THE PHILIPPINE INFORMATION AGENCY - SIQUIJOR | WWW.PIA.GOV.PH and the DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY - SIQUIJOR | WWW.DOST.GOV.PH VOL. 3 | NO. 38 November 9-16, 2015
NFA urges LCEs to campaign against rice wastage
(PIA) – The National Food Authority (NFA-7) in the region called on local chief executives to step up campaign to minimize rice wastage. In a Kapihan sa PIA recently, NFA-7 information officer Agnes Militante said Filipinos as a whole wastes around P10B worth of rice every year. Every individual she added wastes an average of two tablespoons of rice daily and it could add up to 3.3 kilogram a year. “If we compute it with the 100 million population, it is P27M daily and rice wastage could go up to 330,000 metric tons every year,” Militante said. In terms of production, Cheryl de la Victoria, information officer of the Department of Agriculture (DA-7) said Central Visayas is 32 percent r i c e s u ff i c i e n t , e x c e p t f o r B o h o l Province which is 102 percent rice sufficient, the rest of the Provinces Cebu, Negros Oriental and Siquijor are more than 50 percent short, she added. For this month both DA and NFA officials are encouraging the City and Municipal Mayors to come up with their own initiatives in becoming a “Food Guardian” which is a program of the agriculture sector launched three years ago with the tagline “Be Riceponsible Campaign.” “We cannot do anything if we
Another development is on-going in the port of Larena through the efforts of Larena town Mayor Dean S. Villa. The expansion project costs some P157, 022, 007.61 (Larena Review photo) don’t have the support of the Local Chief Executives, or they can also come up with their own legislation,” Militante said. Cebu City accordingly came up with a Resolution mandating food outlets to serve half cup of rice.
Other activities in the National Rice Campaign include Zumba and Run for Rice and bringing the campaign to the educators and schools. An average Filipino eats around 4 ½ cups of rice daily. (mbcn/fcc/PIA7-Cebu)
DSWD7 warns swindlers collecting membership fees to Pantawid Pamilya recipients (PIA) – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-7) warned individuals who are taking advantage of the program by asking membership fees to become beneficiaries of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, the Philippine government’s version of conditional cash transfer. “We do not collect membership fees to become Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries,” stressed (DSWD) Field Office VII regional director Mercedita Jabagat after receiving fraudulent reports. “Beneficiaries are selected through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) or Listahanan, which identifies who and where the poor are in the country,” said Jabagat.
The DSWD is the lead government agency implementing the program with over four million household beneficiaries nationwide. Of the total household-beneficiaries about 250,000 are from Central Visayas. She pointed out that there are criteria to become beneficiaries of the program and these include the following: Residents of the poorest municipalities, based on 2003 Small Area Estimates (SAE) of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), Households whose economic condition is equal to or below the provincial poverty threshold, Households that have children 0-18 years old and/ or have a pregnant woman at the time of
assessment and Households that agree to meet conditions specified in the program. “We encourage the public to be vigilant and not to fall prey to these hustlers. We urge you to immediately report to the nearest DSWD office if you know of irregularities regarding the implementation of the program. You can also reach our Municipal/City Links for inquiries regarding Pantawid Pamilya,” Jabagat added. Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program is a human development measure of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor, to improve the health, nutrition, and the education of children aged 0-18.(mbcn/jct/PIA7-Negros Oriental)