Camiguin imposes measures to avert food crisis

By URIEL QUILINGUING, Contributing Editor

LOCAL law enforcement agents in Camiguin are strictly monitoring compliance to the prescribed volume and frequency of purchases on rice and other basic and essential goods by individuals and retailers.

They are also on guard against attempts to transport livestock and poultry, including their meat and meat products, out of the island, an act the provincial government declared more than a week ago to be prohibited.

“This is a precautionary measure that will help sustain the food supply in the province,” said Gov. Jurdin Jesus Romualdo after he issued Executive Order No. 5A this March 16 which prohibits shipment livestock and poultry out from Camiguin.

Romualdo issued the order a day after President Duterte placed Metro Manila under community quarantine to contain the infections of 2019 coronavirus disease.

On Monday, the governor placed the entire island province under a 24-day preemptive community quarantine, under Executive Order No. 15, due to the threat of coronavirus pandemic.

“Community lockdowns by neighboring provinces of Camiguin will most likely affect the food supply on the island because most of its foodstuffs and prime commodities are coming from the mainland,” said the governor.

Last week, Mayor Yñigo Jesus Romualdo of Mambajao approved the passage of Municipal Ordinance No. 2020-05, otherwise known as anti-panic buying and anti-hoarding ordinance, seeks to regulate the purchase of certain basic goods and other necessities.

The ordinance, which was unanimously enacted into law in a special session, listed 20 basic and essential goods which include rice, sardines, instant noodles, milk, coffee, eggs, alcohol, and face masks, among others.

Under the law, an individual customer is prohibited from buying more than five kilos of rice, five cans of sardines, and a dozen of eggs in a day. Retailers may purchase 25 kg of rice, 24 cans of sardines, and five dozens eggs.

Other regulated items, the law considered to be basic, include multivitamins, disinfectant solutions, hand sanitizers, diapers for babies and adults, and bathroom tissues.

“Every barangay naa schedule maka-grocery aron ma-observe ang social distancing,” said Vissie Casero, a resident of barangay Agoho, who confirmed the five-kilo limit on rice.

Casero said that fortunately, she has already purchased a sack of rice from a consumers’ cooperative before the “food rationing.”

Irvin Sabella, a village council member of Kuguita, affirmed that buying of goods is scheduled and that a “pass slip” which the village leader provide to every household is required to validate one is indeed a resident of Camiguin.

“Usa lang ka household member ang allowed nga makagawas, dala ang pass slip, aron magpalit og pagkaon o tambal (Only one is allowed to go out from the house, with a pass slip, to buy food or medicine),” said Sabella who admitted he was tasked to distribute the slip passes to every household.

The governor, the village council member said, advised everyone to stay home for 24 days as a precautionary measure against coronavirus infections.

In Catarman, one of the island’s five municipalities, which is situated on the other side of the island, every village with the support of the municipal government distributed food packs to daily-wage earners and indigent residents.

“Naa may mga food packs alang sa mga apektado sa lockdown There’s food packs for those affected by the lockdown),” said Sylvia Mabale, an elementary school head who does paper works at home which could have been done in the school office.

Mabale said it’s difficult for her to personally bring documents to the schools division office which is in Mambajao, the capital town, where most government offices are located, aside from groceries and drugstores.

“Walay public transport, hadlok pa sa virus, ug MWF lang mi puwede mo-biyahi aron makapamalit (There’s no public transport, fear of the virus and travels have been scheduled Monday, Wednesday and Friday for food and medicine purchases), the public school educator said.