I was in Bankerohan market this morning with Davao Today’s Barry Ohaylan. It’s so distressing to see these people queue and waited for the NFA rice retailer to release the mandated two kilos of rice for each person. Most of them said that they’ve started to line up as early as 1a.m.! Then as the rice dealer came in to the crowd and distributed number tags, the crowd became pretty unruly as they scuffle to get the tags.

The rice dealer was so kind enough to ask the people not to break the line  because they will still receive the tags. Young and old were apparently yearning to get to the front to get two kilos of ‘good quality’ of Thailand rice for P25 per kilo.

To avoid of being trampled in the long queue, the senior citizens were separated from the long queue and grouped them together across the retailer’s store. But then even the elders  were the ones went rowdy shortly before the release of the rice. All of the elders wanted to be on the front.  The NFA staff slowly pulled them back have them queue in a single line side by side with the younger ones.

At 7:30am, the rice distribution started for the elders and the younger ones, alternately.

If there’s a rice shortage in Mindanao, it’s not really as bad as the government projects it.  I agree with North Cotabato  Vice Governor Manny Piñol when he said that there’s no rice shortage in Mindanao, only manipulation of prices. That’s really true. I’ve been in different places in Mindanao lately and I’ve seen green and golden ricefields. How come there’s a rice shortage?

Trackback URI | Comments RSS