Those who plan to set up community pantries must seek first the permission of local officials before they could put up even a small table for food items and other basic needs intended for the poor people who lost their job and livelihood to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

In an interview over ANC, DILG Undersecretary for Barangay Operations Martin Diño said the intention is to ensure that everybody would observe the minimum health safety protocol.

"This should be done with the guidance of the LGUs and the barangays to maintain crowd control and ensure that the appropriate health standards are followed," said Diño.

Diño's suggestion, however, was lambasted in the social media for allegedly trying to complicate, through red tape, the efforts to assist the poor people amid allegations of sloppy response and mishandling of the pandemic by the Duterte administration.

But the DILG official noted that handing out food items and other essentials are commendable but stressed the danger of the transmission of COVID-19 if physical distancing is not followed.

When pressed on the alleged red-tagging of these organizers by police authorities, Diño stressed that the only concern about the community pantries are the failure to observe social distancing among the residents.

On April 19, Anna Patricia Non, the organizer of the Maginhawa Community Pantry, said there would be a pause in its operation for the safety of its volunteers.

“Malungkot po dahil hindi muna maipapamahagi ang goods na inihanda namin buong maghapon dahil po sa #RedTagging na nagaganap. Magbigat sa pakirandam ko kasi maganda po ang intentions ko noong binuo ko ang #CommunityPantry at ilang araw na din po na napakaraming pinagsisilbihan nito at ganun din po ang tulong na dumadating (This is saddening as the distribution of goods that we have prepared the whole day will have to be temporarily stopped because of the #RedTagging that occurred. I felt terrible since my intentions are good when I formed the #CommunityPantry and for several days we have served a lot of people and welcomed the assistance we received),’’ Non said on Facebook.

“Sigurado po maraming tao po ang pipila sa amin (community pantry) bukas pero kailangan po muna nila maghintay sa susunod na araw bago po ito maipamahagi (goods and essentials).

Lalo na po at nagkaproblema kanina ang ibang Community Pantry sa mga kapulisan (Many people will line-up to us tomorrow but we need to wait the following day before the distribution. Especially when the other Community Pantry encountered problems earlier with police authorities),’’ she added.