By Nonoy Lacson
ZAMBOANGA CITY – The city government has purchased 250,000 sacks of rice, which the local Social Welfare and Development (CSWD) started to distribute Sunday to the 98 villages in the city.
Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco said the city government has allotted about P265 million for the purchase of the fancy imported rice.
The city government on Saturday has piloted first about 10 villages in this city where village and CSWD officials will undertake the distribution of the staple food.
According to Climaco each household will receive one sack of rice of 25 kilos, two cans each of sardines, beef and meat loaf, half a kilo of potatoes, eggplant and iodized salt.
Among the barangays that have already received the food packs were Zone1, Lumbangan, Lumayang, Labuan, Sinunuc, Buenavista and Arena Blanco.
Climaco said the distribution of goods was done on a house-to-house basis.
But not all household who received the second wave of food assistance from the city government were happy.
Barangay Sinunuc official Pilarica Ledesma accused the city government of allocating them rice of poor quality, and had foul odor.
Ledesma said her village received 4,482 bags of rice, and about 1,151 households complained that the rice were of poor quality and had foul odor.
Ledesma immediately collected the rice and informed the city government of the incident.
CSDW promised her that the poor quality rice will be replaced.
Local residents here also lambasted the city government for allocating P1,300 per sack of rice, when it only cost at the local market here P1,000 to P1,150 per sack of imported and fancy variety of rice.
The city government was targeted about 250,000 household who will received a sack of rice and food pack in the coming days.