First halal community pantry, 3 others rise in Oro

By Herbie Gomez
Editor-in-Chief

FOUR more community pantries, including one that offers halal food to the needy for free, were opened in Cagayan de Oro on Tuesday, April 20, moves welcomed by Mayor Oscar Moreno but with apprehensions due to public health concerns.

This came a day after a young University of the Philippines (UP) physics instructor, Rene Principe Jr., opened Cagayan de Oro’s first community pantry on Pasil Road in Barangay Kauswagan, on Monday, April 19, to help the needy and as a political statement on the government’s handling of the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Soon, restaurateur Norkhalila Mae Mambuay-Campong followed suit by setting up the first halal community pantry in the city on Tuesday afternoon, April 20.

Three others were set up almost at the same time at the Holy Rosary Petron gas station on the busy C.M. Recto Avenue, on Aurora Street in Zone 3, Barangay Agusan, and at the RVS Plaza in Barangay Bugo.

Campong said her community pantry, opened just outside her halal-certified restaurant Babu Kwan and near the Masjid Oro Jamah mosque on Aguinaldo Street, is not exclusive to Muslims.

“The halal community pantry is for everyone in need, Muslims and non-Muslims. There’s (an) emphasis on halal so that Muslims can freely get supplies without fear of getting haram supplies,” she said on Wednesday, April 21.

Mayor Moreno called this week’s rise of community pantries in Cagayan de Oro “acts of generosity” that should be allowed freely.

But Moreno appealed to organizers to observe public health protocols, especially the rule on physical distancing, and keep the community pantries and queuing people off the roads.

He said while city hall won’t penalize those who don’t observe minimum public health standards set by the government, community pantry organizers need to bear in mind that the “penalty imposed by the virus (Covid-19) is a lot worse.”

Moreno said, “Distancing is for public health. We expect everybody to observe it properly. Being ‘penalized by the virus’ because of the breach is dangerous to a person violating and his loved ones.”

Moreno frowned on red-baiting and cautioned what he called “overzealous groups” against intimidating those who organize community pantries in the city by linking them to the communist insurgency, pointing out that generosity and aiding people in need are not criminal acts, and neither armed rebellion.

He said community pantries are just like cooperatives, and “it is not illegal to criticize government’s failure, more so if a person tries to do where government fails, but without taking the law in his own hands.”